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zorg1000 said:
AlfredoTurkey said:

Price tag>inflation. Value is relative to the consumer. If these consoles were at inflation costs, comparative to the late 70's, they'd be pushing a thousand dollars. People see a price tag and associate it with the product regardless of the time it released. A game console's sweet spot is $199.99... and always has been. Anything over $249.99 and it becomes harder to sell... which is why Nintendo has only done it twice.

People have paid more, of course. The PS2 was $299.99 and moved quite well and so is the Switch. The PS4 as well. But history shows that once they drop below that $200.00 range, they really fly off shelves. Most of the PS2 sales were at that price point. 

No, inflation is definitely something that needs to be taken into account. There is a reason why consoles dont release at $200 anymore and thats because you cant get the same out of $200 in the 2010s as you could in the 80s/90s.

Yes, consoles typically have their peak sales a few years after release when the price comes down and the software library is established and word of mouth is high, this even applies to those devices that launched at the "sweet spot".

 

Is there a reason you ignored the 2nd part of my post? How would Switch have sold far more than it did by being $100 cheaper when they essentially sold as many as they could make in the first year? At best it would have sold just a little bit more which wouldnt have been worth it and would have severly cut into their profits.

If it had released with that price point, they'd have increased production in the anticipation of it's success which would have negated the supply issues. And the extra software would have been a boon for profits as well. More consoles=more software=more profit. 

It would be interesting to see what the profit margin is on a Switch. It they're making them for less than $199.99, then they'd still make money at retail, albeit far less. But still, software is where they make all their money, not hardware. 

I'm guessing it's at $299.99 because... well... it can be.