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Author Topic: MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?  (Read 306 times)

Asmodeus

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2004, 01:37:00 PM »

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67thRaptorBull

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #16 on: July 16, 2004, 01:42:00 PM »

QUOTE (001438 @ Jul 16 2004, 10:08 AM)
I honestly don't see how they are loosing money.  I mean really think about it.

What do you think it honestly cost MS to make a single Xbox?  $20-25, and that is probably pushing it.  A $125 profit per Xbox isn't to bad.

Just because it costs us Big bucks to purchase a 3Gb processor doesn't mean that it costs MS that much.  Bill Gates has his sweat shops going with young children who will work for pennies a day.

I'll believe they are loosing money when I see the proof in writing.

yea, but sorry, your crazy

even with the price originally at $300, they were barley staying above the water, so you think in the last 2 years they made a magical all in one machine that just craps out xboxs for 30 bucks?
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The unProfessional

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #17 on: July 16, 2004, 01:43:00 PM »

QUOTE

What do you think it honestly cost MS to make a single Xbox? $20-25, and that is probably pushing it. A $125 profit per Xbox isn't to bad.


The Xbox is constructed of standard PC components used all over the world.  If MS could produce an Xbox for $25, so could all the Chinese companies producing low-cost PC components, and you'd be buying your computer for $30.
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Dark_Link2135

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2004, 07:45:00 PM »

here it is, plain and simple:

if you have an xbox, you need games for it.

a game costs less then a buck to manufacture.  maybe a little more, but not much.  at $20-$50 each, they are making a crapload of money.  well more then enough to offset the loss of money by the xbox, even after taking money out of sales to pay the team that made the game.

im surprised no one has said this.

well, i only read the first page, so i apologize if someone already has.

they have tons of other products anyway that they make a buttload of money off of.

so they are not losing money on anything, net, even when you restrict it to xbox sales (including console, game, controllers, memory cards, etc.)
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gcskate27

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2004, 07:52:00 PM »

QUOTE (Dark_Link2135 @ Jul 19 2004, 07:48 PM)
here it is, plain and simple:

if you have an xbox, you need games for it.

a game costs less then a buck to manufacture.  maybe a little more, but not much.  at $20-$50 each, they are making a crapload of money.  well more then enough to offset the loss of money by the xbox, even after taking money out of sales to pay the team that made the game.

im surprised no one has said this.

well, i only read the first page, so i apologize if someone already has.

they have tons of other products anyway that they make a buttload of money off of.

so they are not losing money on anything, net, even when you restrict it to xbox sales (including console, game, controllers, memory cards, etc.)

ahem, development takes money... while pressing the dvd is cheap, manufacturing a game is far from it...
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Dark_Link2135

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #20 on: July 19, 2004, 08:14:00 PM »

QUOTE (gcskate27 @ Jul 20 2004, 03:55 AM)
ahem, development takes money... while pressing the dvd is cheap, manufacturing a game is far from it...

i beg your pardon, but you dont know what you are talking about.

i mentioned development in my post.  read it.

and how are development and manufacturing related, other then development comes first, and is the real cost of the game, and then manufacturing comes next, which is CHEAP minus the machinery to manufacture it, and even then, they offset that cost with the number of games they sell.  and since they can use the machinery to make ALL the games, they just have it print different data/labels, they are not losing money.

there money comes from the games.  thats how they offset the cost.
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gcskate27

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #21 on: July 19, 2004, 09:34:00 PM »

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The unProfessional

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #22 on: July 19, 2004, 10:31:00 PM »

QUOTE

... even after taking money out of sales to pay the team that made the game.


I really don't see much mention of development in your post, btw.  Looks like you're treating it as a pretty minor component.  Paying 10 programmers, 10 artists, and several admin staff salaries for 3+ years in addition to marketing and the various other costs to run a business, games costs millions to make.  Millions upon millions.  And they aren't making tons of money.  Dozens of game development firms have died over the last couple of years because the industry has become outrageously competitive and expensive.  The game industry is becoming more and more like the movie industry, where producing a game requires massive investment... something the little guys just can't do very easily -- so they disappear.  Just like with movies, the big firms are raking in coin while the small creators are diminishing.

They often never offset the cost.  The average game development firm produces two failing titles to every succeeding one.  The take major risks, and these risks may put them in the red for years on end, in hopes for a big break.  Manufacturing isn't even an issue here.  99% of the wealth gets sunken into intellectual property, not discs or labels.

I don't have a bibliography quoting what I mentioned above, but if you get Game Developer magazine, and read it, you should already know.
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Dark_Link2135

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #23 on: July 21, 2004, 06:04:00 PM »

look, MS didnt get to be the biggest monopoly on the planet by losing money.

what i meant to say, anyway, was that manufactuing and development were two different parts of game costs.  skate was treating them like they were the same thing.

and you are entirely contradictory to yourself...you say i did not mention development but provide a quote proving that i did mention it?

"Paying 10 programmers, 10 artists, and several admin staff salaries"

okay, lets go to an extreme, and say each one of these guys is making the top salary of $150,000 a year, which they are obviously not.  average starting salary for a programmer, i know is 30k.  but lets say these guys have all been working for a long time, and are ALL getting $150,000 a year.  this would never happen in real life, thats ridiculous, but here it is:

150k x 25 x 3  x = 45 million dollars
salary x people x years

(i used 5 as a figure for the admin staff.  i think thats about average.)

now that is a big investment, but consider the fact that they are almost making a $49 profit on each game they sell.  by the time economy of scale figures into it, they are making each game at barely over $1, rough estimate.  if anyone can find the actual number, please tell me.  anywho...xbox has a number of platinum titles, which means they sold over 1 million copies (correct me if im wrong on that).  when they get platinum status, they drop to $20.  but before, they were all selling at $50.

so profit of one game - 49x1,000,000 = 49 million

so platinum seller is enough to offset the cost of paying a development team, with each person getting $150k per year.

so they are more then offsetting the cost of development, as you can see.

hope that clears things up.
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bluedeath

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #24 on: July 21, 2004, 06:58:00 PM »

MS is losing soooo much money that they can afford a 75 billion dollar dividend.  Cry me a river.  Read About it
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Yuyu

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #25 on: July 22, 2004, 01:56:00 AM »

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AnThRaX

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #26 on: July 22, 2004, 02:30:00 AM »

They maybe losing money on consoles, but there definatly not losing money on the games making there games is nothing to them. So most that 49.99 is profit. They also sell accesories and xbox live, all that is revenue and profit for them.
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..[[ModBoxMaster]]..

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #27 on: July 22, 2004, 02:31:00 AM »

QUOTE
They maybe losing money on consoles, but there definatly not losing money on the games making there games is nothing to them. So most that 49.99 is profit. They also sell accesories and xbox live, all that is revenue and profit for them.

yeah cause xbox live for 12 month is 70.00 bux
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AnThRaX

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #28 on: July 22, 2004, 02:46:00 AM »

QUOTE (..[[ModBoxMaster]].. @ Jul 22 2004, 04:34 AM)
yeah cause xbox live for 12 month is 70.00 bux

No it's 49.99 for a starter kit last time I checked. I was a beta tester 1st wave so I dunno how much it is now, but I paid 49.99 for a 12 month card, headset, Nfl Fever 2003 beta, Whacked, Moto GP, Revolt, Translucent Orange Memory card, and carrying case for 49.99
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gcskate27

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MS Still Is Not Making Money With The Xbox?
« Reply #29 on: July 22, 2004, 03:03:00 AM »

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