A Japanese website’s teardown of the Nintendo Switch has estimated the cost to produce a single Switch console. Firm Fomalhaut Techno Solutions conclusion comes to roughly $257, and with the Switch being sold at $299 on retail, that leaves a little bit of room for profit on each console.
Breaking apart the console down into individual parts, the touchscreen, charger, and actual console itself costs roughly $167 dollars to make. It is the Joy-Con controller that is surprisingly expensive to make. Nintendo’s advanced motion technology causes each of them to be made for $45, meaning $90 total!
The Joy-Cons sell for $50 individually on the market, also pulling in a tight but solid profit.
Still a few unknowns about the parts
Fomalhaut Techno Solutions admits that the rumble features are unknown in origin since they lack any identifying markings. They had to estimate the price for these. The custom Nvidia processor and the USB-C power charger add the most to the price of the central system.
Compared to the other consoles, the PlayStation 4 cost $381 to produce at launch and the Xbox One cost $347. With the Kinect, the Xbox One piled on the dollars all the way up to $471.
The Joy-Cons tower over the DualShock 4 and the Xbox One’s controller, which were $18 and $15 respectively at launch in 2013.
