Pricing of mainstream game consoles


AquaAnalogue

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My roommate at the Institute is somewhat daft when it comes to the technology "scene". To illustrate this: he is a rabid Microsoft supporter (let the holy wars not begin? though I think I'm safe here :) ) and often argues blindly in circular logic how open-source is "immoral", even likening me to a terrorist for using open-source software. :blink:


However, he said something brilliant recently during one of our arguments, and I'm only now starting to put the pieces together with the price increase on the Pandora.


We were having an argument about the open-source driver for the Kinect, and how it had been cracked mere hours after it was put on the market. He was crying blasphemy, scandal and hellfire against the whole open-source scene as usual, and I said something to the extent of: How does it hurt your precious Microsoft? We still have to buy the device to utilise it for open-source software.


His reply was unusually informed-- more so than myself, apparently. His reply was something like this: Dumbass! Microsoft sell the Kinect at a loss and make the money back on the games! Open-Source are stealing from Microsoft! OOOOHH BOY, I can't WAIT for THIS lawsuit! Heh heh heh.





What followed is irrelevant, but let's just say he wouldn't be convinced for his life that it was perfectly legal, and his circular logic was quite formidable. I had to settle for a stalemate lest I lose my mind.


However, I came away with a different point of view. If what he said about selling the Kinect at a loss is true, then is all commercial hardware sold at a loss? If you count out piracy and homebrew and assume an Orwellian government which sees all and punishes both with death... it's a somewhat decent business model. If all this is true, I can see why a fanboy would be upset. Of course, that's why nobody should be a fanboy of a company from Hell. :p


This could explain why the Pandora costs $500. If OpenPandora Limited were making money on royalties and commercial game sales, it would probably cost less. This must be why everyone I tell about the Pandora "mm-hmms" until I get to the price, then says "500 dollars?!" (and earlier, but less often "330 dollars?!") and scoffs.


Don't get me wrong-- I know all about the Gilette business model. "Give 'em the razor; sell 'em the blades." However, I never really thought a company would sell a fully-fledged gaming device at a loss. It's an incredibly stupid thing to do, honestly; no wonder they fight so much against homebrew, piracy, and jailbreaking!
 
Don't get me wrong-- I know all about the Gilette business model. "Give 'em the razor; sell 'em the blades." However, I never really thought a company would sell a fully-fledged gaming device at a loss. It's an incredibly stupid thing to do, honestly; no wonder they fight so much against homebrew, piracy, and jailbreaking!
As far as I remember, Microsoft and Sony do this with all their consoles, but I don't have any facts at hand (edit-22feb2011-0509GMT+1: and I don't know if it's actually true for Kinect either). At the very least they do this for some of their consoles, and Nintendo is being well-known for being "the one" company to sell its gaming hardware with direct profit.


This is actually a pretty well-known fact, weird you didn't know about that.


PS: Tell your friend how much Microsoft can profit from the free work the open source scene does for them. Microsoft has changed the way they treat homebrew and open source, however most definitely this is more of a nasty trick than anything else (i.e. they "have no other chance").
 
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This is actually a pretty well-known fact, weird you didn't know about that.
I know, right? It's so obvious-- but it never quite "clicked" with me... and I honestly consider myself to be a somewhat intelligent individual. Perhaps I have been mistaken...

PS: Tell your friend how much Microsoft can profit from the free work the open source scene does for them.
*shakes uncontrollably in a miniature bout of rage*

If Microsoft ever change their attitude and do anything that is directed toward the open-source community out of pure altruism (id est, not to further their corporate goals in some way, shape or form), I will eat a bag of those BBQ-flavoured cockroaches, retch them up, and swallow them again.


My neckbeard may be just long enough currently to append the following:


Good thing they'll be defunct or otherwise irrelevant in 10 years because they are slowly losing their footing in every known market to open-source alternatives.





Nope, wait... *looks in mirror* I think i need another week or two to be that optimistic about the situation :(
 
AquaAnalogue: change your roommate before you commit a murder. I don't think the law allows you to kill morons.
 
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