[G a f f e r]

OK, so a hypothetical question here. Imagine you're a NEW console maker (my small attempt to prevent fanboy posts ) called.....erm..... SoNintSoft .

What do you think you could include in a console hardware wise that would allow you to end up with a console that could retail for £200 today and NOT involve selling it at a loss?

For instance, would it include an internal Wi-Fi type n card?
A hard drive? What about an SSD? If so, how big?
Video output? Most people think that HD is a must.....is it? If so, HDMI out only or spend a bit more and also include component/scart and composite?
All 3 manufacturers are apparently gunning for motion control.....would you bother?

etc etc.


Here's what I think might be possible with todays components and still allow the magic £200 (with profit) to be attained:

HDD, SSD too expensive but a 50Gb HD is very cheap nowadays (even cheaper if bought OEM en mass)
Internal Wi-Fi, 'n'
Motion Control of some form to appeal to the widest audience
HDMI, but need to still include the ports for Scart/Component/Composite
Graphics capable of 1080i/720p (not sure of cheapest one that can do this)
Plenty of cheap RAM


^^^^
Possible yet? (I'm not thinking of any particular company so please spare the "but my consowl is teh bestest" type arguments - this is purely hypothetical with a new hypothetical company which hypothetically has no affiliation to anyone and neither does it give a hypothetical about it's customers - it just wants to make money ).

What would you include that would be marketable and allow you to make money if sold under the magic £200 mark?

[Giburrows]

Hypothetically if you were a console maker you would probably have cheap resources than the likes of ebuyer or dabs but I would include Blu-Ray, Wi-Fi, a small harddrive as blu rays can hold massive amounts, HD is a must ,But USB connection is a definite, Wireless pads yes but motion control not so much.

Personally I couldn't do it for the profit and in a dream world my console would be able to play all games from all consoles if that is possible (I know the Wii and the *****box can be hacked to play copied games so....)

[Haggler]

I think you may need to include a list with a few rough parts prices here in order to get a decent number of responses?, a sort of pick your parts and cobble them together in your dream machine for your 200 quid if you will, obviously all the parts will far exceed the 200 quid mark so members will have to pick wisely.

[CAS FAN]

Not a great deal really if i'm honest. One of the main costs of developing a new console is the R&D. This includes the design, the technology and the branding.

Take the Wii for example. Nintendo already have a great brand with characters like Mario and the fact that virtually everyone has heard of Nintendo (gamer or not). The DS was already a huge success with non-gamers and it was really just a case of converting that casual handheld following to their TV console. They therefore had fairly minimal branding costs compared to a new brand.

The technology used in the actual console was all old tech really (basically, just an enhanced Game Cube) and the design came from function as pretty much the smallest console they could make based around an optical drive. The only real R&D cost was in developing the Wiimote.

So they used old tech (SD only) so parts costs were minimal, had minimal additional branding costs and a much smaller R&D cost than say a new high end console. OK, the console is wireless and has an SD slot, but there's no Hard drive, no DVD or Blu Ray capability and no optical out. Even after all of that it still retailed for nearly £200 at launch.

Go back to 2007 and the PS3 made a loss retailing at £425 and again (with the Playstation brand being absolutely HUGE) there was minimal branding costs.

To actually retail a new console for £200 and make a profit from day 1 then the parts would most likely have to cost between £50 & £100 tops per unit. I don't see there being much chance of developing anything better than the Wii to be honest at that price.

[G a f f e r]

OK, well let's say that the company SoNintSoft is already a good brand....like apple or pandora or something (just saying).
Based on hardware alone, I think that apart from the delivery system (disc/net shop etc etc), the hardware parts themselves have prices that are tumbling, so it may just come in under, but I forgot to mention a drive and that would probably tip it over:

50Gb HDD £20ish
Internal Wi-Fi £15
Motion Control of some form to appeal to the widest audience
HDMI, but need to still include the ports for Scart/Component/Composite see Gfx card
Graphics capable of 1080i/720p £100ish?
Plenty of cheap RAM 2Gb=£25
BluRay drive? (LG do one for £75) ---- or would you stick to DVD?


That's £235 prices for joe public if building a htpc yourself (not inc. mobo, case etc).......but I was thinking that getting the parts at industry bulk prices would make price come down........now I'm not too sure.


At the very least it should get you parity over the current crop of £200ish consoles wouldn't it? (all three sell for around that nowadays).

[CAS FAN]

To produce a new console it's not just a case of sticking a load of existing PC bits into a plastic box though. Whilst the GPU & CPU's of the current gen consoles are based on existing designs, they are still developed specifically for the consoles that they are used in. They have had to be designed and produced for the purpose of their use in the console.

A lot of money goes into that, as well as developing the OS and infrastructure that runs the console. If you break it down then the actual component cost will probably just be around 50% (maybe less) of the unit cost.

If the parts are say £200 then you will probably be looking at an RRP of around £350 at least (and even then that will probably involve an initial loss). The part cost of the PS3 will probably be around £100 per unit (maybe less) now and really that's the level you would be aiming at to release a console at around the £200 mark.

If you are wanting to add in any newly developed tech, like a motion controller etc. then that takes up even more of the unit cost in development and design.