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foxtail on 01 October 2014
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outlawauron said:
Juma009 said:
outlawauron said:
uran10 said:
Everything except the wii U has made a profit thus far. The Wii U is currently making a profit so it should be able to be profitable by the end of its life cycle as well.

This isn't true. The losses from the gamecube and n64 were hidden from the massive profits of their handhelds.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2481975

Did you read your link? It's using the a vague statement about the 3rd year of the N64's life. At this point, there wasn't much for them to lose money on as there weren't many big projects later on in its life.  

The problem is that most people are just looking at the unit sales for consoles like the Gamecube when they should be looking at hardware + software plus the money they make off of "other hardware" (which includes peripherals and accessories).  

The "Other Hardware" category is largely skewed towards consoles because that is where most peripherals and accessories are sold.

Below are sales for the years that are covered by the Gamecube:

Console and Handheld Sales for FY 2001-2006 (Hardware + Software) in Millions JPY (¥)

Fiscal Year Handheld Console Other Hardware
FY 2001 354,532 163,114 26,878
FY 2002 255,615 200,879 41,453
FY 2003 318,086 140,628 49,679
FY 2004 352,301 116,418 41,690
FY 2005 396,530 75,171 32,947
FY 2006 665,979 238,839 54,258
Gamecube was released near the tail end of 2001 (JP/NA)
DS was released near the tail end of 2004 (JP/NA)
Wii was released near the tail end of 2006 (JP/NA)


Same Sales Info as above but with "Console & Other Hardware" added together

Fiscal Year Handheld Console + Other Hardware
FY 2001 354,532 189,992
FY 2002 255,615 242,332
FY 2003 318,086 190,307
FY 2004 352,301 158,108
FY 2005 396,530 108,118
FY 2006 665,979 293,097