Analysts Estimate Nintendo 3DS Parts Cost $101

First! !!! The 3DS is too expensive. It didn't stop me from buying one though.

Yes, it's too much. Stopped me from ordering one.

too expensive? Are you a frickin janitor or what?? even of it cost 100 to make, the advertising, R&D, marketing, labor, tax, and wholesale price would probably cost them an extra 100 which will leave them with onlly 50$ profit which is only 25% which is very low compared to other products. So shut up all of you cheap bastard who thinks that the company should sell them for no profit.

Some companies do, and recoup the losses with games sales.

Try to be a little bit more polite next time.

Companies often take a loss on their gaming consoles; their hope is increased revenue from game sales (a result of an increase in console sales) will make up for the loss. I'm not sure how different the portable market is in this regard, but it does surprise me that Nintendo is taking in $150 to try and cover the cost for R&D, marketing, and shipping.

I wonder if they're afraid the system won't be a huge hit and want to bring in more money per console sale in an effort to hedge their bet on the system. Or, perhaps (a more optimistic take) they believe the system is so unique that people will pay the higher price?

I'm guessing when Sony comes out with the PSP2, Nintendo will drop the price. That would be a good way to now to pay off expenses now (by milking early adopters) so they can cut costs down the road.

It's too expensive. Not an impulse buy and too expensive for most kids.

If this estimate is correct, Nintendo is still making a profit compared to the PS3 at launch. As for you beamthegreat1, not everyone is as well off as you. Griffed88 is only wise to judge if its well worth spend his hard earn money, and in my opinion 3DS is currently not well worth spend especially its just a hand held.

At this point it's too expensive to me for what it does, though I'm sure Nintendo did their analyses and figured out what price would make the most profit, just like every company does.

I will say this, if they're actually making money on their hardware, instead of breaking even/taking a loss, it kind of makes their whole thing about remotely bricking hardware stink even worse than it does. Which reminds me, that's the other reason I won't buy one. I'm really getting sick of this "you paid money for it but you don't own it" mentality that more and more companies seem to be trying to get away with.

I don't see myself pirating games, but I could see myself trying my hand at writing one of my own. Better hope Nintendo doesn't notice!

i dont think ill bother with the 3ds, there isnt really any difference between it and the dsi apart from the 3d

ill wait till there 2 or 3rd generation 3ds then i might think about it, its a bit hard to justify spending that much money on a handheld

when an xbox 360 console is only $199 compared to the $250 of the 3ds

which would you rather have

Old news.

Yeah... I bought myself a DS after a few price cuts and got the lite when it was 129.99. Beat the hell out of New Super Mario and FF3 & 4, then... haven't touched the thing in over a year!

Economics aren't based off manufacturing costs, they're based off the market worth. If people are willing to buy it at that price, and they are, then they will be sold for that price. Just because Sony sold the ps3 at a loss does NOT mean every other console has to do so.

Sony has a lot of interests other than the gaming industry, so they have a lot more to gain from underpricing a console that could push their other technologies. Sony wanted Blu Ray to win the format war, ps3 helped them do that. It also encourages purchasing Sony 1080p 3d TVs and content from Sony's movie/music divisions. Nintendo doesn't care about selling you a TV or buying the latest media, they just want you gaming.

It's a bit pricey for kids, sure, but considering how many people are carrying around 600 dollar smartphones, it's actually quite affordable in comparison.

BTW the whole "Nintendo will brick your system" business is from a retailer, not from Nintendo's official policy, so get over it already. Nintendo warns that if you mod your system, it could be bricked. The same is true for any console, messing with it could lead to bricking, and no retailer is going to take it back. The same is true for jailbreaking your phones as well, read the disclaimer, your warranty is void afterwards. When Nintendo actually bricks something with a firmware update, then you can judge them for it. Until then, they haven't said anything. And don't bother whining if they only target piracy specific mods, if you lose your 300 dollar console because you ripped off 500 dollars worth of games, I don't feel bad for you in the slightest. That's the risk you take.

smocha, what we are saying is, that the other devices on the market cost way less even some consoles

There are two issues which make this post intensely retarded.

I'll let you try to spot them.


OT: Considering the most entertaining looking things I've seen come out of this are ports, yes, it most likely is too expensive.

I have watched many, many of these articles where something is broken down, and a price is somehow extracted based on the sum of the parts needed to build it. These types are articles are pure speculation by persons who know very little about manufacturing or the costs associated.
The value of a particular item has nothing to do with the sum of the cost of the parts you need to build it. If you started a business based on the theory of these articles, you would be bankrupt before your product ever made to the stores. That is a fact, not speculation.

worth it because of all the R&D?? REALLY?

threw in a few slightly powerful chips, a 3d screen, and a thumbstick, and that justifies the $250 pricetag? fuckin BS

Over here it's $300
Yes it's expensive, No I won't be buying one.

But I'm never the one to buy Nintendo stuff, My brother is though.

It's more expensive than a netbook!
I think 3D LCD's are pretty easy to create (with a ribbed plastic surface).

Too expensive. I won't buy one until it's at least $170. By then they'll probably have a smaller version that comes in better colors too anyways.

definitely too much

Way too much for only 3-5 hours of battery life.

I'm waiting for the 3DS Lite

lets look at it this way, lets assume that over a a consoles development time, r&d is 1 billion before launch, thats probably WAY more than a hand held costs to r&d but its an example

lets say that they are makeing about 100 pure proffit in america, and about 150 in japan.

before the first revision, im betting the system will sell 10-15 million, that is at minimum 1-1.5 billion proffit alone off console, not even taking into consideration the money they get per game sold for the system.

and by the end of the cycle this system will have sold close to 50million minimum. assuming that its going to be about 100$ profit world wide, for the consoles life that is 5 billion total.

and also, nintendo i don't believe r&d ed the screens, they r&d ed putting them in, but the tech itself.

if this 101$ is anywhere close, we are grossly overpaying for it, and i doubt that zelda would convince me to buy one, knowing that the above is true, nintendo put out decent tech and made money off its sale, they always have, but damnit, not at almost double the cost it takes to make, its the same reason i will not buy a tablet, or ipod, its hoe much you grossly overpay.

is it good, hell yea
but if this is true, i cant justify it at this price, though easily justifiable at a 50$ nintendo poffit (150-200$).

Who else would play 3DS unless he is a frickin janitor who's ditching work?

Hardly worth the price because of the R&D, that is for sure. However, $250 is not much money to many people. I do not think the target market of this device is minimum wage or unemployed groups.

These are just the costs for the parts and do not include assembly, software, shipping, R&D, service, warranty, advertisement, etc. etc.
I'm sure Nintendo's profit on this thing isn't small, but there is a lot more involved in making a 3DS work than just buying the parts and putting them together.

These are pretty simply economics. They sell it for the price the consumer is willing to pay.

3DS 3lite!
(get it)

It's too much and I never planned to buy one.

Anyone else sick of these stupid cost of parts articles? Nevermind that it's speculation, but it's clear a lot of people don't understand that more goes into developing a system than cost of parts, which means this analysis is worth crap. It's worrisome when people don't seem to grasp such basic concepts. The outrage of some of you is actually funny. If you don't understand how R&D, shipping, labor, assembly, etc.all adds up, plus the company trying to make a profit. And if they're not making a profit, they'll just squeeze you some other way.

I guess some of you want them to sell these at $110 bucks and leave $9 to spread around between all of the workers involved in designing, assembling, shipping, and selling it.

Remember nintendo ds lost TONS of game sales when kids got R4 cards. Simply no need to buy games off nintendo once you had one.

And don't give me the " they wouldn't have bought the game in the first place, loads of people I knew bought a few games, got an r4 a bit later and never bought one since."

They will not risk no profit on this console sale, it will be the most being hacked console on the market right now by a long shot. BIG money for the Chinese.

I completely agree with you. All these factores contribute to the final retail price of a product, people just seem to think that solely the material cost is what augments prices?.. It goes much deeper then that and I for one think that this is a completely reasonable price.

If you can't cite specific cases where business failed before their product made it to stores because they based it on rudimentary manufacturing costs, then I'm afraid that isn't fact, but is speculation.