According to Japanese tech firm Fomalhaut, who tears down consumer electronics and figures out what it costs to manufacture, and their new report says that Switch manufacturing costs are $257 per console.
Nintendo has previously said that it would sell the Switch at profit on day one, and they seem to be making a small profit on each console sold. In addition to the $257 Switch manufacturing cost, there is packaging and transportation, and then the retailers also take a cut of the final price (MSRP is $299).
By comparison, both Sony and Microsoft sold their consoles at a loss when they launched back in 2013. Way back in 2005, Sony famously took a $300 loss on each PS3 console sold.
Nintendo last console, the Wii U, cost $180 to manufacture, as we reported almost five years ago.
It’s been common for console makers to take a loss on each console sold, and make up the difference in licensing fees to game publishers. For each $60 game that a publisher sells, $12 goes to the platform holder (Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo).
In addition to estimating the cost of the Switch, Fomalhaut also says they expect Nintendo to sell 30 million Switch consoles by the end of 2018.
