RolStoppable said:
Good post. With Iwata's quotes the entire speculation regarding a Fusion platform can be put to rest. Also, Nintendo hardware was not sold at cost or at a loss, except for the GC, 3DS and Wii U. Nintendo didn't become rich because they used the razor and blades model. Don't rewrite history, Soundwave. Nintendo's design philosophy during their early days was lateral thinking of withered technology which by definition allows companies to avoid cutting edge technology and thus sell at cheap prices, yet still be profitable right out of the gate. |
SNES and N64 were sold at a moderate/thin profit margin (hence the razor blade analogy that's been used for decades). Both had large price cuts within the first 6-8 months on market too. The SNES price cut coming so quick actually caught Sega really off guard.
I remember that pretty well because my dad was really pissed off that the Super NES had come out and we were bugging him about getting one when we had just gotten the NES a few years prior. He said he'd buy one when they cut the price and they cut it like 2 months later, lol, so it was like my gaming prayers had been answered. That's how I got my SNES, just in time for Street Fighter II.
The N64 chip was actually fairly cutting edge too (the SNES was a good deal better than the Genny/TG16 too). When Tom Kalinske at Sega was demoed it (SGI went to Sega before Nintendo), he flipped out over it but Sega of Japan was too stubborn/stupid to adopt it, it just happened to be fairly cheap too. Yamauchi then I believe personally inked the deal with SGI himself a few months later. I remember that too (the Project: Reality press release in EGM).
