Ah.
I guess my point was, they wouldn't launch a super powerful console at a loss, if they could lighten up on the power and launch in the green. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, who don't give a mother fuck, and leave it up to accessories/overpriced proprietary storage to make them their money.
I think with the 3DS example, Nintendo learned that making a substantial profit margin on devices at launch was only something they could feasibly achieve with Wii and the DSi (and to a lesser extent, the DS Lite).
With Gamecube, they not only lost money per console after the $99 price drop, but lost a VERY small margin per GameCube sold during the first year, though darn near close to breaking even (I think it was averaged at $20 lost per console or something).
And I think that's what we'll see with WiiU... rather than try to make the profit on hardware now, they'll price it to break even or at a manageable loss, then institute a modest price drop when profit margin increases and sluggish sales allow it to happen, the time when console demand really begins ramping up anyways.
It would be a smart move on their part.
Now, here's an idea for a topic..... do you think Nintendo is going to move to using Blu-Ray sized keep cases?
I think it's a great idea, with ONE caveat. I'm sure you're all familiar with PS3 case design, but here's an example:
Now it's hard to tell because they used clear plastic, but "PlayStation 3" is actually embossed into the plastic on the top. Yet they re-branded the packaging for the box art insert. This makes NO sense.
And on newer boxes, the embossment of "PlayStation 3" is removed entirely, and instead we get an ugly-ass banner at the top of all of our box art and a bunch of dead space in the plastic above it. It's a complete and total waste of space that COULD be used to put the console branding on.
So if Nintendo does change to these new keep cases, I hope they use the dead space at the top for their branding. It'd be a nice touch.
