| taternuts444 said: why do Microsoft and Sony continue to push these overpriced systems that costs them more than they get back??? why can't they just release affordable systems without all of these unnecessary extras, apparently Nintendo is the only company that gets this, and eventually they'll be the only one standing. |
It was simply an escalation of the previous generation. Also, both wanted to get an early lead on the other competitor to try to win the market. If you win, then you lose early and make it up later. But if you lose, you lose early and later.
And imagine if Sony had priced the PS3 at breakeven- it's simply not possible. Putting BR in there automatically means an expensive console sold at a loss. It would have been interesting to see what might have happened if Microsoft targeted a $300 launch price- what kind of console would they have? But Microsoft has always marketed the XBox on power, so they had to do their best to match the PS3 (drive format aside.)
What they didn't anticipate (and really no one did), was that Nintendo would release a cheaper AND profitable console that would start dramatically outselling the both of them COMBINED.
