Half a controller is $50?! That's ridonkulous!
At some point, some article will come out saying what the tear down costs for Switch is and maybe it will include controllers costs.
I remember some Xbox articles saying a controller costs about $15 to make.... might have been years back so they may have been talking about the 360 controller.
If an Xbox controller is about $15, there is no way a Switch nub costs more than $7-8. Ok, it may have some fancy gyroscopes what leads to more precise rumble, but I don't see how it can cost as much as an Xbox controller that is bigger, has more functionality and also has basic vibration too.
Given experience in consumer goods, which includes small electrics (not video game related though), the old 33-33-33 financials loosely apply. It may be +/- 5 pts somewhere, but that approximate ratio applies to most goods. I'm not saying that applies to homes, cars, or big stuff, but for most stuff you see in a store.
33% store profit
33% store cost/supplier profit
33 supplier costs
So a box cookies that costs $3.00 to you, probably costs a store $2.00 to purchase, and the supplier spends $1.00 to make it (material, packaging, shipping).
For video games though, a buddy of mine told me a store usually makes about 25% margin on games and knick knacks.
That $60 game costs EB roughly $45 to buy of a publisher..... give or take a few bucks.
To me though, a Switch nub for $50 seems like a high margin cash grab. it's not like a game which has $2 worth of packaging and disc, but maybe $20 worth of dev costs. But who knows. Maybe it does cost a lot to make.
