You have it, part of the reason Nintendo went to bundling was that the cost of the game was already covered. Any games sold beyond a certain point only cost as much as the media they're written on. So while I agree that bundling the game and the Gamecube did make it pretty much the same as the $99 price drop, the reality was that the the game was virtually free to produce and the GC wasn't.
As I write here, I think that this price drop coupled with their new ad campaign is mostly a good thing. However, I do question some aspects of Nintendo's strategy.
As far as price point is concerned, it is likely that this is the first time that Nintendo is losing money on per-console sales. For a long time, only Nintendo broke even on each console, so now they're on par with Sony and MS (MS losing the lion's share at an estimated $110 per console upon release). However, Nintendo will seek to make this up in game sales. According to GI.biz their ratio is 8.4 games to every console, so that adds up to a very healthy profit in the long run.
I go into this in more detail here, but I think that the main barrier to more widespread acceptance of MMGs is their inability to provide forms that lend themselves to more "orderly" gaming. In short, the games aren't cooperative enough.
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You have it, part of the reason Nintendo went to bundling was that the cost of the game was already covered. Any games sold beyond a certain point only cost as much as the media they're written on. So while I agree that bundling the game and the Gamecube did make it pretty much the same as the $99 price drop, the reality was that the the game was virtually free to produce and the GC wasn't.
As I write here, I think that this price drop coupled with their new ad campaign is mostly a good thing. However, I do question some aspects of Nintendo's strategy. As far as price point is concerned, it is likely that this is the first time that Nintendo is losing money on per-console sales. For a long time, only Nintendo broke even on each console, so now they're on par with Sony and MS (MS losing the lion's share at an estimated $110 per console upon release). However, Nintendo will seek to make this up in game sales. According to GI.biz their ratio is 8.4 games to every console, so that adds up to a very healthy profit in the long run.
I go into this in more detail here, but I think that the main barrier to more widespread acceptance of MMGs is their inability to provide forms that lend themselves to more "orderly" gaming. In short, the games aren't cooperative enough.