they should of done it for 10k, only for it to turn out it was uncomfortable for loads of people, failed after 8 months and went evil if you fed it after midnight.
The Xbox One controller cost $100,000,000
- Thread starter EvB
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they should of done it for 10k, only for it to turn out it was uncomfortable for loads of people, failed after 8 months and went evil if you fed it after midnight.
TheRealTalker
Banned
this and the fact that they wasted 1 billion on acquiring and making 15 games for the xbox one.... some one must tell MS to get the priorities right... they need to learn how to manage their money -_-
You don't really see Sony talking about how they spent $100M on their controller. If they did they might be ashamed of it.
Also, Sony did have major additions to their controller. But even so I doubt their costs would've been that high.
I'm not saying they should cut corners and pull an Ouya. But at the same time that's a lot of money for a hygenic feature. People who are already going to buy it get more excited but people who aren't or are on the fence are going to look at it as "That's nice"
Soul Destroyer
Banned
Spending 100mil really isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. In the business world and even in general, if you want to make money, you gotta spend money. The more you spend, the bigger the chance there is to make more in theory.
To put it into context :
Lets be conservative and say MS sell 50million consoles. That's 50million controllers. Each controller is $50 a pop. So :
$50*50,000,000 = $2,500,000,000
That's $2.5BILLION from $100million.
Also, most people will have 2 controllers over its lifecycle. So of that 50million that bought lets again conservatively say that an additional 30million are bought.
$50*30,000,000 = $1,500,000,000
So in a conservative grand total :
$2,500,000,000+$1,500,000,000 = $4,000,000,000
That's $4Billion in revenue. Obviously costs of construction etc will be deducted from that amount, regardless it's still a huge profit after that point.
Buisness 101: How to make profit.
To put it into context :
Lets be conservative and say MS sell 50million consoles. That's 50million controllers. Each controller is $50 a pop. So :
$50*50,000,000 = $2,500,000,000
That's $2.5BILLION from $100million.
Also, most people will have 2 controllers over its lifecycle. So of that 50million that bought lets again conservatively say that an additional 30million are bought.
$50*30,000,000 = $1,500,000,000
So in a conservative grand total :
$2,500,000,000+$1,500,000,000 = $4,000,000,000
That's $4Billion in revenue. Obviously costs of construction etc will be deducted from that amount, regardless it's still a huge profit after that point.
Buisness 101: How to make profit.
Was that sarcasm?
I can't really tell, but the Sly Racoon avatar tells me it wasn't....
They don't care about core gamers anymore man!!! It's all about kinect and TV!!!!
It's really hard to believe this when they're pushing kinect as much as they are. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but this just seems like they're trying to take the steam out of Sony's sails with this 'Me too! Me too!' attitude and it really is getting annoying considering their stance now is almost the complete opposite of what it was just a couple months ago.
I know, another person ragging on Microsoft, but I really struggle to be optimistic with them considering all that happened recently.
I know, another person ragging on Microsoft, but I really struggle to be optimistic with them considering all that happened recently.
semiconscious
Member
CVG have an article where they chat to Zulfi Alam about it in more detail and it has been revealed they have spent $100m redesigning the pad.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/423871/features/the-100m-story-behind-the-xbox-one-controller/
stealth onion article?...
R3TRO
Member
Well damn.
But you have to realize at the price they sell these at, $100 million dollars will be made back within the first 2 years of the consoles life. Additional controllers have the second highest attach rate behind games at the sale of a game system. I saw it with the 360, PS3 and WIi at launch, people want to have the ability to include at least 1 more person. With that in mind, companies are doing themselves a favor by setting aside what seems like a lot of money to build and test every aspect of a controller to make it "right".
They spent 5.5 billion on R&D last year, which is more than twice what Apple spent Microsoft spent 9.8 billion.
Crazy sums of money for everyone involved.
You forgot to include production costs over the life cycle of the product. Sure, they'll still make a pretty penny but not $4 Billion.
Business 021: Financial Accounting
When you look at those figures, $100M seems like a relatively small amount. Just goes to show how many other things these companies are focusing on besides video game consoles.
TheRealTalker
Banned
No its wasn't... its just that they could clearly use less money to do these things... in a business standpoint it's unruly for the company to be so leisurely on their finances... they have to think of the larger picture here instead of wasting a ton of cash and hoping for the best... this money may have been useful but what if the xbox one isn't a success how much of your company are you putting at risk by increasing your financial goal amount to break even
Its not a hated response towards MS but a confused and concerned one... your company can't always be wealthy so you need to be more wise on your choices
Next Chapter Business: 022 Read the next chapter
Business 023
efinition of 'Revenue'The amount of money that a company actually receives during a specific period, including discounts and deductions for returned merchandise. It is the "top line" or "gross income" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.
Revenue is calculated by multiplying the price at which goods or services are sold by the number of units or amount sold.
I would be highly surprised if they did say, if we are lucky we might get a snarky comment about it from one of the Sony twitter accounts though.
It is a tiny amount, Xbox Live gold brings in like 1 billion a year, so to spend 10% of one year's revenue on a product that is going to help ensure another 10+ years of revenue doesn't seem silly at all.
I think it just shows that Microsoft are deadly serious.
i'm just saying man that controller is freakin' amazing looking
Next Chapter Business: 022 Read the next chapter
Business 023
The amount of money that a company actually receives during a specific period, including discounts and deductions for returned merchandise. It is the "top line" or "gross income" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.
Revenue is calculated by multiplying the price at which goods or services are sold by the number of units or amount sold.
Perhaps I should have been clearer. At first you were talking about making back the development costs through sales, correct? I was simply stating that you wouldn't be making back as much as you think you would considering you would also have to pay for production costs on top of the $100M spent for R&D on the product.
OriginalNameGuy
Member
Can we get a decent D-pad for that price?
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
If that's what you were implying than I missed that.
Same, my PS3 was used almost exclusively for exclusives.. pretty much because I'm not a fan of the DS3. If the PS3 had a better controller I would have went there.. and it's why I'm going XB1 first.. the controller has the analog in a more comfortable spot.
I'm sorry that you think moving up should mean your finger going sideways.
The only reason the other analog isn't symmetrical is because outside of shooters you spent the majority of your right hand time pushing buttons. Even the curve of the handle of the 360 controller put your thumb in a comfortable spot on the right side and your left hand instantly and comfortably falls on the left stick.
The DS has your left hand fall on to the d-pad.. which would be great if you only played games where that was the best control method.
Stop trying to use logic. Obviously having to change your batteries once a month or so is a PITA.
What wonderful management they have at Microsoft, spend $100 million redesigning controller, end up with almost exactly the same controller. You would think that somewhere around the $50 million mark somebody involved in the process would have stopped for a second and realised that it wasn't working.
When the type of games they want begin costing $30-50+ million per title in development costs alone, you can quite easily see how $1 billion disappears fast. With the number of teams they could have possibly just started building from the ground up, existing teams creating new games and third party arrangements...that's a lot of pricey investments. We don't even know how that money is being divided up.
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Yup, I'll never notice the thing that's in my hands pretty much the entire time I'm using the device.
Huevos de Oro
Member
It certainly does look like a nice piece of hardware, Dr, BallmEvil be damned.
He said that in his post though.
Wow, are you like inverted Daredevil? You can feel things by seeing them!
That's damn useful, it must make it difficult to get off certain kinds of websites.
MesserWolf
Member
Efficient R&D department !
Impressive output for 100.000.000
Impressive output for 100.000.000
kemalettin
Banned
no matter how much money they wasted one new controller I BET ITS GONNA BE BETTER THAN PS4 controller 
Always-honest
Banned
It seems like a great controller. But that's a shitload of wasted money imo.
TheRealTalker
Banned
I'm just saying MS should use this money to invest in for the long term
making new studious - good investment
making cloud servers - good investment
wasting that much money on a controller - not so good investment
ShinMaruku
Member
Sounds about right. Money well spent. People forget drugs take 1 billion dollars to test and launch.
flamingotripod
Member
That is because the 360 controller is pretty much perfection except the d-pad. How can you improve on what is already perfect?
I agree, I can't wait to add it to my PC collection too.
Every single person with a negative post should be banned. I don't care how much it cost (I'm sure Sony spent a ton on their nice redesign).
THIS is the kind of money and commitment I want put into a controller I'm going to use for a loooooooooooong time, and on different hardware (PC/X1). I don't want them to just crap one out like the Ouya.
BritBloke916
Member
no matter how much money they wasted one new controller I BET ITS GONNA BE BETTER THAN PS4 controller
I was going to try and present a logical and coherent counter-argument, but I see you have used capital letters. Well played, sir. This one goes to you.
It is you who fail Business 101. The actual way to judge whether this was a good decision is 1) the incremental sales the 100 million will generate and 2) the opportunity costs of spending that 100 million elsewhere in the business. If the profit from the incremental sales is not higher than the opportunity costs of spending the money elsewhere it is a bad decision.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
Depends on how you hold your DS3. for me, my gip puts my thumbs exactly where the sticks are, with my forefingers on the triggers, where most games seem to focus these days.
In 15+ years of using a playstation controller, i've never experienced this discomfort people seem to be having. Makes me really wonder how they grip the thing.
As for the topic? $100m is a lot, but that's probably the start to finish costs, including preparing for production in terms of tooling. That's about what I expect. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony's costs were in the tens of millions as well all things considered.
MrCunningham
Member
For that cost, they better let me have a wired version that I can plug into my PC. I think the XBox One controller looks damn sexy, if they solved the D-pad issue then this might be one of the best game pads ever conceived.
There are people that make their purchase habits based on their controller preferences. It could lead to better software sales on their platform or more accessory sales if they choose to get another on their Xbone or PC (whenever that happens). Maybe the cost was a bit much but I don't know how this compares to the rest of the industry.
It has already been said that you can plug in a micro USB cable for it to be a wired controller. The bigger issue is PC drivers.