| ▲ | somenameforme 3 hours ago | |
> Most consoles are sold at a loss You're thinking of 'back in the day.' The original XBox's video card was worth more than they sold the entire system for, and the PS3 was a complete beast of computation (even if not entirely inappropriate for games...)! But in modern times (PS4 gen onward) consoles have become relatively vanilla midrange computers designed with the intent of turning profit on the hardware as quickly as possible. The hardware cost of the PS4 was less than it's retail price from day 0 [1], and they began making a profit per unit shortly thereafter. Similarly the PS5 also reached profit per unit in less than a year. [2] XBox models from the PS4 gen onward are conspicuously similar as well. [1] - https://tech.yahoo.com/general/article/2013-11-19-ps4-costs-... [2] - https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/4/22609150/sony-playstation-... | ||
| ▲ | musicale 2 hours ago | parent [-] | |
PS2 and PS3 were price-competitive with stand-alone DVD and Blu-Ray players (respectively) at launch. However, Switch is another console that sold for more than component and manufacturing cost at launch. But most of the cost that needs to be amortized is R&D. | ||