Is the Xbox One a failure?

[IFireflyl]

DM235 said:

http://press.ihs.com/press-release/design-supply-chain/microsoft-xbox-one-hardware-cost-comes-below-retail-price-ihs-tear

XBox One costs at launch were estimated to be about $396 ($471 less $75 for Kinect).  They are probably a little less now, as the costs of components typically go down each year.

AC:U and AC:BF would cost Microsoft a lot less than retail, as they don't have to pay themselves royalties, retailer margins, or even packaging, since the titles were just digital codes.  I think a high estimate would be $50 for both, although they most likely agreed to a lower price.

Retailers would do bundles are their own expense, so that would not affect Microsoft.

Given the estimates above, they were selling a $444 console for $330 (with some small retailer margin), so they were incurring a loss of about $100 (again, I think this would be a high estimate, as I think their costs would have gone down from launch). 

I personally think that if people bought a game, extra controller and XBox Live, they would probably break even.

I didn't even think about this (bolded) point. Nice catch.