Paying 250$ for a 3DS that cost a little over 101$

[Eri]

Unless you're reading this from the accounts section of Nintendo, we may never know. But experts in the field can estimate, and they estimate that the 3DS costs Nintendo $101 to manufacture.

If that's correct - and even if it's not, it's likely to be damn close - there's a big gap between the handheld's $101 parts bill and its $249 retail price in the United States.

Which is your cue for INDIGNATION and OUTRAGE, yes? Perhaps, but remember, that's just an estimated cost for the "raw materials" needed to manufacture a 3DS. It's not including research & development costs, shipping costs, advertising costs, the cuts retailers may take, etc.

Nor is it including the fact that Nintendo refuses to sell its hardware at a loss, so there's pure profit to be had in the $148 price gap, too.

How much pure profit? Who knows. But hey, if you don't like it, you could always not buy it!

http://kotaku.com/#!5785605/so-how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-nintendo-3ds

Even with the costs of R&D considered, that's one HELL of a price jump. Just imagine in a year, the price of those parts will probably be like 75 dollars? Maybe 50 dollars? and its just down hill from there. Kinda glad I'm waiting to buy one later.

 

[acosn]

It's Nintendo's usual ploy. They've always over charged you for old technology and then stimulate sales later in life by slashing the price tag.

An initially high price tag lets them play it safe and recover the losses from development, while a later life price drop lets them collect the fringe buyers. You have to remember that for basically the first time Nintendo has to grapple with some real competition from phones that are starting to approach it in terms of gaming capability. Even if it's pretty superficial at this point.

 

[DirgeNovak]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
There ya go.

I would never buy a gaming system on day one anyway. There's usually not a lot of choice in the games department. No no loss for me.

 

[godfist88]

what a way to rip off the consumer huh? whether this is true or not i'm still not getting one, the fact that it's always watching you just creeps me out to much.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Well, raw material cost is nothing compared to how many hours have been spent on development and such.. So that prize does not really shock that much.

 

[Bob the frantic]

If people are going to buy it no matter the cost, why not completely rip them off? The only way the price is going to go down is if people don't buy the 3DS, and that isn't going to happen for a while.

 

[Cheskaz]

Well, raw material cost is nothing compared to how many hours have been spent on development and such.. So that prize does not really shock that much.

Exactly, plus Nintendo is a company and to gain money in order to grow. You cant blame them for that, every business does that.

This isn't very well put...Sorry.

Also *Price

 

[Balobo]

Well, raw material cost is nothing compared to how many hours have been spent on development and such.. So that prize does not really shock that much.

Yes, people seem to forget that tons of money went towards research and development. Ninty needs some way to make that up.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Unless you're reading this from the accounts section of Nintendo, we may never know. But experts in the field can estimate, and they estimate that the 3DS costs Nintendo $101 to manufacture.

If that's correct - and even if it's not, it's likely to be damn close - there's a big gap between the handheld's $101 parts bill and its $249 retail price in the United States.

Which is your cue for INDIGNATION and OUTRAGE, yes? Perhaps, but remember, that's just an estimated cost for the "raw materials" needed to manufacture a 3DS. It's not including research & development costs, shipping costs, advertising costs, the cuts retailers may take, etc.

Nor is it including the fact that Nintendo refuses to sell its hardware at a loss, so there's pure profit to be had in the $148 price gap, too.

How much pure profit? Who knows. But hey, if you don't like it, you could always not buy it!

http://kotaku.com/#!5785605/so-how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-nintendo-3ds

Even with the costs of R&D considered, that's one HELL of a price jump. Just imagine in a year, the price of those parts will probably be like 75 dollars? Maybe 50 dollars? and its just down hill from there. Kinda glad I'm waiting to buy one later.

101$ for something undoubtedly put together by Korean slave labourers with parts made by Chinese slave labourers sounds like it's already including the cost of R&D, advertising, vendor cuts, etc.

 

[CommonSense1013]

So... a company wanting to make profit and you complain about it? Huh. Didn't see that one coming.

 

[Eri]

So... a company wanting to make profit and you complain about it? Huh. Didn't see that one coming.

Did you register on this site to just make smart-ass remarks? Based on your posts so far looks like you did. Didn't see that one coming.

 

[BouncingSoul]

i don't understand the fuss. first of all there's literally dozens of compounded costs on top of just the raw materials, most of which have been brought up, but still. i'd assume all told it probably costs Nintendo about $150 to get each 3DS into someone's hands in any given part of the world. take another $10-25 for the retailer or middle-man and yes, Nintendo still makes $75 on each system but why is that a problem? the economics figure themselves out; if $250 is too much, no one will buy it and the price will either go down drastically or the product will fail. we all know that won't happen; they'll sell plenty starting Sunday, though i doubt they'll run out and go for double on eBay. i'm sure they could've sold it for $300 and only lost 10% of possible sales but they know what they're doing and this is the best possible middle ground.

i do understand that there's no reason they couldn't sell them for $80 each, take a decent loss but recoup it in game sales and online-games markets ten fold. but for an industry that's dealing with piracy left and right, especially with how bad it is for DS games in less developed countries (in most of South America blank DS carts are sold right next to a few select legit games and outsell them by over 300%) you can't really blame them for trying to make back that money any way they can.

having said all this, i sure as hell won't buy one until it goes down a bit, but that's because i'm not all that interested in it to begin with. sorry for such a long first post on here haha.

 

[PlasmaFrog]

The price seems reasonable, I don't see the issue here.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I wonder how much profit there is in the average iphone or ipad, oh but they come in a WHITE case, so that's ok

I forgot a white casing allows you to charge silly amounts.

Seriously, if the market decides Nintendo is taking the piss, it won't sell well. If people think $250 is fine, it'll sell. It's pretty much that simple.

 

[Tiswas]

They all do it. Sony or Microsoft did the same thing with the 360/PS3 (can't remember which. I think it was 360) where it cost like a fraction of what they were selling it for.


With the 3DS' release it seems a lot of people are desperate to try and draw attention away from it.

 

[BouncingSoul]

CNBC said back in late 07 that Sony took a loss on every PS3 it sold for the first year or so. after that the productions costs dropped significantly.

as for Apple products, forget the iPods and iPads and such, just think about MacBooks, how does a MacBook Pro possibly cost literally $1000 more than a PC with the exact same specs? while i've definitely heard people ***** about this, it sure doesn't stop anyone from buying them.

 

[Saelune]

Well, one its a buisness, and two, not like YOU are going to make one and pocket the extra cash. It may cost that to make it, but thats likely not counting the cost of the stuff used to physically build it. I dont think its so bad. That extra cost is the money you spend for not doing it yourself. A baker making bread, it doesnt cost as much to make it as he sells it for, but that extra money you spend is for not having to bake it yourself.

 

[Leg End]

They all do it. Sony or Microsoft did the same thing with the 360/PS3 (can't remember which. I think it was 360) where it cost like a fraction of what they were selling it for.

360. Sony was up until a while ago selling the PS3 at a loss. They just barely started turning a profit.

 

[Chibz]

Personally, I have a ridiculously large gaming budget. I just wanted my system, TYVM.

I WANT IT NOW GOD...

AFK, taking medicine.

Buying a system entirely up-front: Awesome.