burninmylight said:
Simple. PS3 and 360 were sold at a loss by tremendous margin when they launched. I've heard some people on this site claim Sony took as much as a $200 loss on each launch PS3 sold, though I take that with a grain of salt. Nintendo consoles are traditionally made to be profitable from Day 1. The Wii U was planned to be right around the baseline with it cutting close to even after a 1-2 game attach rate, and the 3DS was originally supposed to be Day 1 profitable when it launched at $250, but Nintendo took a big loss on each sold after the price was quickly slashed to $170. The reason why last gen was so long was because Sony and MS planned for their consoles to have long lifespans and wanted to stretch it out and recoup as much money as possible. |
Yeah I completely agree that the loss on each launch XB360 or PS3 sold was nothing more than "a grain of salt". If Microsoft lost billions of dollars during the 7th generation by doing this, then why would they enter the 8th generation doing the same exact thing with the XB1? Slashing prices left and right with 2 free bundled games doesn't sound like profitability to me. So if one of the three companies only made a profit in the 7th generation, arguably the most profitable generation yet with 260 million consumers buying consoles, then why are they still in the gaming business? You know?
