I tried to start a video game retail business the cut is about 1-to-5 dollars, this is one of the reasons why if digital gets a bigger audience we will probally see more expensive consoles. Because most businesses a cut that size isn't good for their bottom line and if the physical copy business shrinks they will need some incentive to carry the product. (I still have the domain name from when I tried to start my business. I'm allowing my mom and sister to use it, while I decide what to do with it. That reminds me I need to fix her website she has zero talent for designing sites.)

I have seen it weeks ago on a fan made PS4 rumor site. And thought about posting it here but decided against it. The specs are too rediculous to be real.


160 Threads Cpu= 128 SPE + 16 PPE. Imagine programing for it.

This alone can't be right.

20gb Ram (10 GB GDDR6!)

2x GK104 GPU ?


Its too much to be believable way too much.

And what he meant is that the Vita will have recouped setup costs after three years. You people should really learn the difference between manufacturing costs and production costs of a product. It is really annoying to see so many clueless "analysts" here.

Just to get some idea, let's look at Andrespetmonke's manufacturing costs:

The average chinese worker drone costs around $2 per hour for a manufacturer. Now guess how many Vitas a worker assembles per hour? Let^s say he is really slow and only manages 5 units perhour - ridiculous assumption. Of course it's an assembly line with tens of workers working on tens of units in parallel. So assembly costs are less than 30c per unit.

Now shipping costs. In the past, prices to ship a 2TE unit from China to wherever cost $4000. Due to bad economy, these prices have drastically shrunk to below $1000. How many Vitas can you pack into a 2TE unit? 20'000? 30'000? So shipping costs are less than 30c per unit.

So how much is Sony paying for manufacturing the Vitas? Probably around the $150 that are repoerted The only unknown quantity here is the OLED screens which could be very expensive (m-OLED manufacturing quantities are known, and are limited. What Sony has been selling might be near what they could actually get on OLED area - hence the strange launch period).

The difference between manufacturing costs, store price costs, and estimated number of units sold per time interval determines the time until the Vita product is profitable. Obviously Sony calculated with a three years period to recoup setup costs. In the beginning, The price of a product is determined by development costs, factory setup costs, advertising, freebies, etc, later in the timeframe basically by advertising only.

So is the Vita profitable or not? On the manufacturing level, yes no doubt. On the production level, maybe not because it sells less than the three year plan would have required. This creates the puzzling result that Sony is (currently) losing money on the Vita although they make money on every unit sold..

The $160 is for the wifi model, $90 would have to pay for assembly, the frame, manufacturing of parts (I guess this could include assemply and frame), the retailers cut, the shipping costs and the packaging. $90 does not seem like enough to pay for this. If Nintendo is selling at a loss with $70, as you said, then I'd imagine the Vita will be selling at a loss as well with $90 set aside for everything. And the $160 component list could be bogus for all we know, it wasn't official. I did find a different list showing more parts, I think it was official but it didn't have prices, I'll try to dig it up somehow. So maybe the 3G version is making money on each unit sold, but I doubt the wifi model is.

Sorry for the misunderstanding about R&D costs, but I did seperate those costs from the cost of single units. And it still counts, it'll be a while until PS vita makes up for those costs, it's still part of the price.

Thanks for the insight, I knew it was low, but that is pretty bad. No wonder retailers like to force bundles at the begining of a consoles lifecycle. Though it makes me wonder if the cut is higher on the Vita than most consoles since the VIta releases its games digitally day and date.

@drkohler - What you are saying makes sence, but to a business until a product has recouperated all of it's sunken costs the product is not considered profitable.

impossible...
even if it really does the cost will be at least US$1k and above...
and how much sony is gonna sell this...

The retail cut is indeed low, the Wii had a 4% retail markup. Producers and retailers rely on software and accessory sales. drkohler makes a good point that assembly and distribution costs are not that much. andreaspetmokey, you are relying on those costs to be high to justify Vita not selling for a profit, but you have no proof of it. The $160 breakdown isnt official, but if anything Sony could be getting those parts cheaper than those who calculated the breakdown, I thought it did include the 3G card, but if not those are very cheap, maybe a $1.

R&D is part of a products profitability but we are talking about individual hardware sales. It sounds like you are trying to aplly it to both which is just confusing, wiibox3. If you are just trying to say that Via isn't profitable as a whole right now, of course. No product is! Kaz said it will take 3 years.

Perhaps we should stop talking Vita. I tire of cleaning up after unethical journalism and this isn't the thread for this anyway.

With these specs in mind, the implementation of Move (as opposed to waggle), creation of PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale! (as opposed to Super Smash Bros), I believe it's safe to say Sony will be naming their next system "Superfragilistic Ultra Playstaion The Fourth! (as opposed to Super NES)

lmfao, not sure if serious lololol