@routsounmanman
Okay...what you're trying to say is that Nintendo is doing it the right way and the competition is doing it the wrong way.

@mancandy Exactly ^_^

I am at Uni doing a Jewellery course, you really don't realise what an excellent bargain you are getting with the hardware, most products cost a miniscule amount of money to make compared to what they are sold for.....

for instance if i make something i can price it in two ways, the first is to work out the cost of materials, add a price for the hours it takes to make 1/a set/whatever (depends on your hourly rate...say £10-15 an hour to help include any development costs (takes longer and extra material to get the first 1/set correct)) then if you are selling it straight to someone else, like maybe Ebay or something, you at least double whatever the previous stuff adds up to....If you use a retailer like a jewellery store, they will double it again so they make a profit too. (unlike games consoles where the actual hardware makes minimal profit for the retailer, it's all about the games)

Another way is to work out what kind of customer you are selling to, then work backwards to find what materials to use, this is generally going to be more expensive for the customer (in terms of material and labour cost)  than the first way.

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With Nintendo someone worked out the cost of the materials in the Wii saying they make $13 each in Jp, $49 in America and $74ish in Eu, that wasn't including anything for the remote/nunchuck or Wii-sports in the West....nor the packaging cost (yes it's minimal but it counts) the distributing costs, advertising... etcetera etcetera.

If you took out all the seperate software and extra perephrials from the equation[sp?] Nintendo would not be making a profit with the Wii. (though less advertising would be needed with only Wii sports as a game, but even then i doubt Nintendo would make a profit)

@TWRoO
"[...]you really don't realise what an excellent bargain[...]"

If you see this just from a financial view, Sony & Microsoft offer you a greater bargain, that's what I've been saying...

That's a bit naive... If I throw a bunch of expensive electronic stuff which does nothing useful into a bucket and then charge $1000 for it, would most people be interested in buying it? Value is not about how much things cost to produce, it's a perception which consumers create based on the advantage they take from a product... Yeah, the PS3 is more expensive to build than the Wii, but most people consider the Wii to be more fun, hence they assign more value to the Wii. Most people don't care about CPUs, optical drives and GPUs, what they want is the result of all of that... gaming experiences!

When you add in the facts that the Wii/360 are cheaper AND have more perceived value for most people than the PS3, you've got the explanation of their success right there.

^^ True. Blu-Ray might be next-gen and pricy but not always necessary; you changed my mind :/

Well, routsounmanman says that Nintendo is taking more than 100$ of of us.
And here, http://wii.ign.com/articles/820/820658p1.html, we have a report from an analyst who begs to differ. According to him, in Japan, Nintendo makes 13$ profit, in the US 49$ and in Europe somewhat over 75$. Now, maybe you would like to say that it's still a rip-off? Fact of the matter is, Nintendo is still the only console producer that gave consumers of all ages a gaming machine (you heard right, a GAMING machine) that is affordable, has good games graphics(not on par with other consoles, but still), free online play plus other goodies. You say steal? I say good buisness buster.

Nintendo can't lose money on hardware or they'd probably disappear. They can't take as many risks as Sony and Microsoft, since games and consoles is all they do!

If Nintendo had launched the PS3 or the Xbox, they'd be bankrupt by now... They need a special strategy, and that's what they're doing.

@Wojtas

please read all of my posts before posting yourself; and what's wrong with you guys? I just expressed my opinion and I feel circled all of a sudden :(

That's the nature of a forum, people will reply to things they see ;) Just feel proud that you're not considered a troll that nobody bothers to answer :)