How long until a ps4 level $400 hybrid is possible?

[Alkibiádēs]

Conina said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

- Making hardware is Sony's specialty.  That means they could make the same hardware as Microsoft or Nintendo and it will cost them less in manufacturing costs.  This specialty combined with my next point is what drove Sega out of the console market.

Making hardware is Foxconn's specialty. Why exactly shoud they give Sony better prices than Microsoft or Nintendo for the same hardware?

Sony's greatest strength (compared to Nintendo) is their global presence. They have over 100K employees across the world, lot's of partnerships with (local) distributors, factories and what not. For Sony it's much easier to penetrate the markets of developing countries like East-Europe, Middle East, Russia, Latin-America, etc. 

Nintendo really is a very small company when you come to think of it. They only have around 5K employees, which is less than Ubisoft, EA, Activision and the same size as Sega. And these companies don't even have a hardware department like Nintendo does. 

Microsoft's biggest weakness is their lack of presence in Japan and lack of partnerships with Japanese developers. That means they lose out on a ton of high quality games like Dragon Quest XI, Persona 5, Nier Automata, Yakuza, Bayonetta, many jrpgs, etc.

These might not be the biggest franchises, but all these franchises together can make quite the difference.