Hardware Switch costs roughly $257 to manufacture

[WhiteMaze]

you really think the switch would cost 250 to produce? they sell it for 70 bucks more in store. you really think that this small margin is really it?

Agreed. As much as I love Nintendo, I do not believe that the Switch costs anywhere near $250 to produce. For a company that still sells Super Mario 3D Land and Super Smash Bros at full price (both games that came out years ago), and old time classics on the virtual console that should cost 0.99 cents ~ 5 dollars but are actually priced much higher than that. And like these examples, many others.

Nintendo is a great company, however Nintendo is a business before anything else. And taking into account Nintendo's prices on just about everything, I seriously doubt they would have even bothered with making the Switch to have less than $50 profit from each unit. Just the risk of that alone would probably fire whoever proposed it at Nintendo HQ.

Until I see actual vivid proof of this huge production cost, common sense tells me otherwise.

 

[Xzi]

Until I see actual vivid proof of this huge production cost, common sense tells me otherwise.

Lol it's not some mass conspiracy, the cost is the cost. Common sense leads you to the same conclusion: if Nvidia is still charging $200 for Shield TV this many years after release, they're not making a huge profit off of each unit. There's way more tech that goes into Switch and the joy cons, and in a smaller, hybrid form factor none the less. Not hard to connect the dots and realize that production of a brand new type of system costs more than something commonly manufactured previously. The longer you continue to produce them, the less it will cost.

 

[WhiteMaze]

Lol it's not some mass conspiracy, the cost is the cost. Common sense leads you to the same conclusion: if Nvidia is still charging $200 for Shield TV this many years after release, they're not making a huge profit off of each unit. There's way more tech that goes into Switch and the joy cons, and in a smaller, hybrid form factor none the less. Not hard to connect the dots and realize that production of a brand new type of system costs more than something commonly manufactured previously.

The Shield TV's $200 is the price to the consumer. For you or me. Not for Nintendo. I'll need proof that the switch has a cost upwards of $250 before I believe it.

The longer you continue to produce them, the less it will cost.

Now this, is very true. I am fully aware of that.

 

[souler92]

you know how margin works in a store right? i mean, for example as i think how it works

store buys 1000 toys for 30 dollar each, thats 30000 dollars total

the store sells them for 100 each, so to get 30000 they need to sell 300 of them.

when they reached the 30000 dollars, they drop the prices with huge discount, like 40 %

all what they sell now is pure profit.

 

[Kioku]

I worry about you people. We actually have some form of numbers and you all still want to believe the opposite.

 

[souler92]

well i dont really care what they make or whatsoever.

im just waiting till mario releases,then ill buy the switch, including the fixed flaws it had at release!

 

[WhiteMaze]

I worry about you people. We actually have some form of numbers and you all still want to believe the opposite.

Quite the opposite. I want to believe the switch really has a cost of $257 per unit, and that Nintendo actually cares about their costumers and is the defender of the good and the poor.

Unfortunately, I very much doubt that number, reality has taught me to be at the very least skeptical in a situation like this.

 

[Gadd]

actually the wii u failure put nintendo's future in doubt. so if you like their games and systems, you should want them to make money on system, peripheral and game sales. if they don't they will go the way of sega (sega is almost dead and the name may soon disappear entirely).

 

[Kioku]

Quite the opposite. I want to believe the switch really has a cost of $257 per unit, and that Nintendo actually cares about their costumers and is the defender of the good and the poor.

Unfortunately, I very much doubt that number, reality has taught me to be at the very least skeptical in a situation like this.

Can you provide an educated example showing otherwise? Everything contradicting it are just guesses and speculation. It's mind boggling really. We have numbers, and still... "I don't believe it's that much..."

Skepticism is fine.. I'm a skeptic myself..

 

[SonicMC]

Just wondering if this included the cost of shipping? Or if it was just manufacturing costs... Was there a breakdown in the article for each piece? I clicked on the article and it wanted a membership fee/registration; so I'm not that interested in the article to pay for it.

 

[Wiisel]

actually the wii u failure put nintendo's future in doubt. so if you like their games and systems, you should want them to make money on system, peripheral and game sales. if they don't they will go the way of sega (sega is almost dead and the name may soon disappear entirely).

I doubt the WiiU made much of a dent in their pockets after DS and Wii sales. For some time Nintendo have wisely and intentionally kept low stocks of hardware and the wiiu isn't their first system to bum out.

 

[s157]

Still waiting on another source to confirm this. Personally I want the production cost to be lower so I can expect a price drop or minor revision sooner.

 

[Nemix77]

I always thought the Switch price is good value, if you compare it to a one year old (technically three years now) NVIDIA Shield K1 Tablet refresh you can see where the value lies.

NVIDIA K1 Tablet $199:

8" (1920 x 1200 pixels)
Quad-core 2.2 GHz Cortex-A15
2GB Ram and 16GB Internal Storage
Li-Ion 5200 mAh Battery
* (No Charger)
* (No Stylus)
* (No Controller)

Nintendo Switch $299:

6.2" (1280 × 720 pixels)
Octa-core 1 GHz Cortex-A57 & Cortex-A53
4GB and 32GB Internal Storage
Li-Ion 4310 mAh Battery
Joy-Cons & Grip
Dock Unit & HDMI Cable
AC Adapter (Can be used as a wall charger)

 

[Gadd]

nvidia k1 has bigger screen, much higher pixel density, and higher cpu clock speeds! for 100 less!

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

WSJ..

But since they included the source it's a credible source (didn't think I'd say this in regards to WSJ ). So anyway, $257 makes sense for the final retail price to be what it is then or otherwise Nintendo would be underselling it and they've got no need to, customers want it so they just have to keep on making them and improve!

I hope that Nintendo's working on a Dock 2.0 due to the current one being a crap piece of plastic.

 

[s157]

The source the WSJ used was the japenese firm Fomalhaut's findings, if I'm not mistaken. I was looking for another company or tech firm to either confirm or disprove of this.

 

[fatsquirrel]

Does anyone have a full report of the breakdown?
Id love to see how manufactures the touch panel (not display, but digitizer)

 

[Nemix77]

nvidia k1 has bigger screen, much higher pixel density, and higher cpu clock speeds! for 100 less!

K1 has Quad-Core Cortex-A15 @ 2.2 GHz and the Switch has Octa-Core Cortex-A57 & Cortex-A53 @ 1 GHz

It's not comparable, 4x A15 has nothing on 4x A57 & 4x A53 even with the lower clock speeds; it's like saying you'd rather have a Celeron Quad @ 2Ghz over a i7 Octa @ 1Ghz.

The bigger screen I agree on but the dock & joy Cons even at manufacturing costs equals that out and more...now add the 4GB ram and 32GB internal storage and the way the Switch unit itself was engineered and the Switch is much better value.

Also take into account no one enjoys touch screen gaming over the traditional controller way of gaming, even if Shield K1 users want to use Joy-Cons purchased separately for their tablet (let's say they create drivers) there's no way to attach them to the screen like on the Switch.

If and when Nintendo releases a web browsers and mobile apps for the Switch, it's going to also be a functional tablet in it's own right.

 

[Gadd]

K1 has Quad-Core Cortex-A15 @ 2.2 GHz and the Switch has Octa-Core Cortex-A57 & Cortex-A53 @ 1 GHz

It's not comparable, 4x A15 has nothing on 4x A57 & 4x A53 even with the lower clock speeds; it's like saying you'd rather have a Celeron Quad @ 2Ghz over a i7 Octa @ 1Ghz.

The bigger screen I agree on but the dock & joy Cons even at manufacturing costs equals that out and more...now add the 4GB ram and 32GB internal storage and the way the Switch unit itself was engineered and the Switch is much better value.

here's the thing...using multi cpus requires effort...lazy programmers don't use all these multi cores. And I'll bet the 2.2ghz beats teh 1ghz core for core

 

[WhiteMaze]

Can you provide an educated example showing otherwise? Everything contradicting it are just guesses and speculation. It's mind boggling really. We have numbers, and still... "I don't believe it's that much..."

Skepticism is fine.. I'm a skeptic myself..

No need to enter a super detailed discussion on why I do not believe the number posted on Twitter. I can make several arguments as to why it probably does not cost that much, the same way you can make a number of arguments as to confirming the $257 price.

It all comes down to what each considers common sense to be, and what each is willing to believe in.

At the end of the day, all I want is for the Switch to be successful and not become a Wii U 2. At this point, the offers from Microsoft and Sony are home based computers that they call "consoles", so really we can only hope that Nintendo sets itself apart from this.