gaming consoles

[Pettytheft]

Cost, the reason why the Xbox is cheaper than a good mid level video card is because Microsoft eats the cost on every console it sells. In order to integrate a gpu of that calibur on a motherboard it would bump the price of the chipset up quite possibly putting it out of range for many consumers seeking a cheap all in one solution.

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

 

[Gastrian]

But nVidia now have the technology and they never lost money with the XBox GPU. MS were making a profit when they were selling the XBox for £250 and that includes the RAM, CPU, GPU, HDD, etc. plus labour, tax and store profit. So the cost for nVidia to create a MB chipset based on an nForce2 and XBox GPU would be neglible. The southbridge chipset on the XBox is almost identical to that used an an nForce2 MB

 

[AMD_Man]

Since when has the XBOX been making money?

Intelligence is not merely the wealth of knowledge but the sum of perception, wisdom, and knowledge.

 

[Gastrian]

On it's initial release. The XBox only started to loose money when each box was reduced to £199.

 

[Pettytheft]

Microsoft has never made any significant profit on it's consoles. Even when they were higher priced. That is why they had the fallout with Nvidia, it was mainly over the cost of the console.

As with all (modern) gaming consoles the money is made in the games not the hardware.

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

 

[Gastrian]

Doesn't really matter anyway now, XBox has gone ATI (Wahoo!!)

 

[sirak]

I dunno, maybe its just me, but most console games don't have the staying power of most PC games. If you can afford a good gaming pc, it is hard to go back to the ps2, etc...

 

[Gastrian]

I think it's a different market. Consoles are now a "lifestyle" market, where the games are purely meant to be picked up and played, it's why the few RPGs that make it too a console are still very arcade based. But with a PC you don't just load it up purely to play a game for a couple of minutes, you generally spend a while on it, and the games are more intricate.

Compare Rouge Squadron2 on GameCube to X-Wing vs TIE Fighter on the PC, RS2 is basically an arcade game based on the SW franchise while XvT is a flight simulator based on the SW franchise. This comparison can be made to games across the board. Mechwarrior on Box - MechWarrior on PC and Baldur's gate Console - Baldur's Gate PC are just a few.