Since the XBox uses third party and off the shelf parts, you'll never see a small scale XBox like you did the PlayStation(s). Perhaps they will manage it with the XBox360 in the future, but definitely not the XBox. If they could have they would have by now.
I sincerely doubt that. I'm sure they weren't exactly selling the NES/Famicom for a profit in the early to mid 1980's. Particularly when you figure that they bundled so much extraneous crap with early NES bundles (Deluxe set with 2 games, R.O.B., console, Zapper, 2 controllers, etc) and sold them for $149. I think they began to make tiny profits on the NES hardware later on in the 1980's at which point it really didn't matter anymore since they had such a stranglehold on their licensees.
Indeed. Traditionally hardware companies make their money from the licensing costs they charge Publishers who release games for their system, rather than on the console itself. As the hardware matures, tweaks are usually made to streamline production and reduce manufacturing costs and this can often lead profits being made on hardware in it's later life. This is one of the reasons consoles have a 5 year average life-span and new iterations/stylings are produced - the MegaDrive/Genesis 2\ and 3 (which removed the headphone socket and volume slider... and Z80 coprocessor?), the Famicom Jnr, the PSOne (many model changes before this of course but included the loss of rear ports and finally the chipset being reduced to one die?), and PS2 slimline (chipset reduced to one die, loss of expansion ports etc) are all examples of this. Anyway, since none of this is possible with the XBox, blah blah blah
I've always maintained that the tiny $5 - $10 profit margin made on a Gamecube console means very little if the games don't sell at a healthy clip or if third parties abandon your platform in droves.
On the tecnical standpoint, a Xbox CPU+GPU on the same chip (as the PS2) is possible, but the problem here is legal. Both designs are propierty of Intel and nVidia, and honestly, going with the enemy (IBM+ATI) doesnt help with that. I better get a Xbox soon....
Yeah I meant legally Surely the prices of a 2nd hand XBox will drop soon? Usually there is a massive price drop (when everyone and their dog is selling) and then the price gradually rises again?
Yeah but I dont want a used one. And when this goes public the prices are going up, not down, like with GTASA
