Console wars: GameCube delivers margins Microsoft dreams of
Posted on 09/12/02 13:51 by Dennis                             
Console wars: GameCube delivers margins Microsoft dreams of

According to an article on 'the enquirer' website Nintendo's GameCube is still going strong because of Nintendo's relatively big margins on the console compared to Microsoft's loss-making Xbox:


Unconfirmed sources close to Nintendo have told the INQUIRER that it costs Nintendo just $20 to make each Gamecube, while Microsoft is known to make a loss on each X-Box it sells. A spokesman for Nintendo refused to confirm the figures, while insisting the company remained "on target" with its console.

Sony's Playstation2 remains king of the consoles despite increasingly aggressive tactics from Microsoft to support its X-Box. In the UK, unattributed retail statistics from the website computerandvideogames.com show some 66,500 PS2s were bought by punters in the last week alone. Microsoft sold some 15,060 X-Boxes, while Nintendo managed to shift just 8,000 Gamecubes.


Nintendo's main selling product is its Game Boy Advance of which it sold over one million copies in the U.S. alone in the last two weeks, according to the inquirer article.

Source: the inquirer

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By tiny, Monday 09 December 2002 15:54
M$ will make this up with game revenue for X-Box.
By Guest, Monday 09 December 2002 15:57
Gamecube sucks..... Didn't we just saw a news saying Gamecube is being taken off shelves earlier for having bad sales?? PS2 #1 & X-Box #2 But I think PS3 will be the best!!
By Sherrif, Monday 09 December 2002 16:12
Did I read somewhere that the PS3 will NOT be backwardly compatible.... someone enlighten me.........:7
By DanDaMan1487, Tuesday 10 December 2002 01:20
DanDaMan1487Black-wolf, I will make a bet that you are still a kid. I am just annoyed when I head these little kiddie comments like "PS3 will be best! or XBOX 3 will win!" Grow up, kids. Its pissin me off. Anyways, if you think about it, Nintendo isn't doing too bad. You see, the point is to MAKE MONEY. Nintendo is doing a very good job at this. Their games are very good in my opinion, very original and creative. Their customers don't lose out because they are getting good deals. And "microsoft will make revenue from games" is bullshit. Microsoft was losing $50 a sale, and with the price drops, maybe even more now. Think about it: are they going to make anywhere near $50 a customer's game sales profits? I mean, they only get a small percentage of the game's profits. Nintendo may be in the background, but they are laughing "Look at these guys, they just don't get it." And they are making more money at the same time. Smart tactic in my view!
By MadX, Tuesday 10 December 2002 08:38
I'm only afraid that MS will push them out of the market anyhow. This because MS can keep funding the xbox till the gamecube is out of the market. MS is making extreme profits on the OS and Office products (1.9 bil. dollar and 2.4 bil dollar). On the OS they have a margin of 85%. And with this money they push other companies out of business. I understand it is normal to use a cashcow to fund building / promoting new products... but this is going to far. I feel they are misusing their monopoly on OS and office products to do so.
By Guest, Tuesday 10 December 2002 09:06
Dam and I thought consoles use to be for the kids, now we have adults who just wont grow up. On the topic seems Nintendo are the smart ones indeed. Selling a console at a loss is retarded, consumers wont pay big prices for these GAMES machines, seems Sony and Microsofts whole selling point is they can play DVD, woopy fucking do, what next they goona add a toster oven and pressure cooker? At least Nintendo like Sega built their consoles for the sole purpose of games.
By shadowarrior, Tuesday 10 December 2002 11:55
right now Microsoft isn't doing it for the money, nor revenues, their immediate main aim is market share. We all know where Microsoft is getting their revenues from, they dont need the money that might be generated by XBOX, but in the long run consoles will evolve to some kind of home entertainement system that micosoft wanna control or be 1 of the big players. Believe me Micosoft got an Agenda and they know where they are going and what they are doing with their console. They got enough $$$ to support XBOX 'till it becomes succesfull, for every 50$ they are losing per XBOX made they 'll find a way to make u pay 75$ when they'll force u to upgrade your windows os or your MS office. I dont think Nintendo will be able to compete with Sony and Microsoft in the long run, just a clear example is the online implimentation, Nintendo has already lost cause of lack of clear strategy in that field while Microsoft even managed to outshine Sony with their Xbox live, so to cut all the Bullshit and to make a long story short, I think Nintendo gotta rethink their strategy if they dont wanna be out of business, they might be saving a lot of $$$ right now but they'll start loosing a lot of money when console players will want to play against their buddies online...
By Travis, Tuesday 10 December 2002 15:19
It's always funny to hear PS2 fanboy/zealot banter, as they never seem to realize that Nintendo always has, AND STILL DOES make more money in gaming than Sony and MS combined in the console war. The Gameboy is the most successfull system every, more than PS1, PS2, Xbox combined. On to the point though, this news story is total BS because no company has ever in history made money off of a console sale, they always sell for less than it costs to make them. Even if Nintendo was making $20 per Cube they would instantly lower the price to $129.99 or less. Companies make money off of game sales, not consoles. Not to mention common sense would tell you that if consoles were markedup up then some retailers would compete price wise but notice an Xbox, PS2 and Cube cost the same in every store (ignoring refurbished and bundle deals). This is beacuse when Walmart sells a Cube for $150 it's because they paid $150 to buy it from Nintende which in turn Nintendo spend maybe $160+ building it. And when you throw in all the heavy marketing Nintendo does, a Cube probably costs them well over $300 each to make. This same math applies to all consoles.
By ceminess, Tuesday 10 December 2002 22:19
WHO CARES, i got my games. all these people competing for which console is BETTER, and which ones are makeing the most money. everybody knows that microsoft has unlimited money, nintendo has been around since the begining, and sony has the biggist lead in console sales in market history.
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