Overview
This guide will not make you hundreds of millions of dollars per console. It will make you billions of dollars per console. This is my (work in progress) ultimate guide on how to win the console wars so hard that Sony and Microsoft rage quit from the entire gaming industry. I’m going to update this with more era/generation specific details later but this is how the overall mechanics seem to work. Also includes A timeline of components now!
Creating a Console
Technology, timing, requirements, and when to release your console for maximum profits.
Getting started in the console industry can be tricky. For this guide, I’m going to assume that you are starting off in 1976 but after reading it, you’ll be able to jump into the console market at any point in the game.
First off, making a console is going to require 2 things that are very important:
1. A really big research department (much, much better than what you would normally use)
2. A really big console development room filled with technicians.
They are going to spend 95% of the game not doing anything and cycling through training rooms but that’s okay because they are also going to make us tens of billions of dollars.
Technology levels:
Console hardware is broken up by technology level, starting at level 1. Within each level you have 2 tiers, a low tier and a high tier. Low tier components are the first to be available within that technology level but high tear components perform better. For example, a RAM card with 512 bytes (low tier) is in the same technology level as a RAM card with 1024 bytes (high tier), but obviously one is better than the other.
High tier components are available several years after the low tier components are. BUT, when all of the high tier components for a technology level are available, the low tier components of the next technology level will start being released soon after that. Basically, you need to release a main console as soon as you have all of the components from the next technology level. Don’t wait around for the high tier stuff.
Each technology level represents a new generation of consoles.
There are 4 exceptions to tiers inside the technology level/console generation:
-Controllers
-Cases
-Cooling systems (fans)
-Handheld screens
These things do not have a low tier and high tier. Casing level 2 is going to apply to ALL consoles in the second generation, there is no upgraded version to wait for.
Timing
This is where the research and console development departments become critical. Let’s say that the first level 2 component has just become available. The rest will start to trickle in over the next few years, then at the very end there will be a group components which are the last components of the low tier for that technology level. Even if you have been staying on top of researching available hardware, researching this last group of ~3 components is going to be the most critical part and it’s why we need a really good research department. We NEED to be the first to the market with a next gen console, and as soon as the last low tier components of a technology level become available, you are racing against your competitors to put a fancy new console on the market.
How fast you can put the next gen console on the market is going to depend on how fast you can research this last wave of components and how fast your technicians can develop it. When I say “a good research and console department”, I mean that 1 of the 3 medium sized buildings on the map should be just research, console development, and a small bathroom+lounge. The research and console rooms should each take up half of the building (minus the hallway and lounge/bathroom). In the 2000s, you need 1 medium building for consoles and research if you want to be competitive against Sony and Microsoft.
We need to release the next gen console before our competitors (or right after they do) so that we can get maximum initial sales (I’ll explain why that matters so much later, but maximum initial sales is what will make your console wildly successful in the long run).
Handheld Consoles
[Update] Handheld console sales will follow the pattern of your main console sales more or less. They will both increase and decrease at the same rate. Handhelds don’t require any games to be published for them. You can get massive market share with a handheld that has ZERO games available.
These play by slightly different rules and I think there is a bit of an exploit with them. You can create a handheld right away (basically) but no one else is going to make a handheld for a really long time. I made a handheld in 1980(ish) and it sat at 100% market share throughout the entire second generation of consoles because it had no competition. Eventually, it outsold my main console because it spent 10 years at 100% market share (I literally invented handheld gaming I guess, take that Gameboy.)
Handhelds will usually be 1 technology level below your main console, but there are a few years where the main console tech/handheld console tech/engine tech levels all line up and you can make games for your main console, handheld, PC, and Mac all at once. This will make your games more profitable but it will not make handhelds more profitable. Again, market share for your games and for your console uses very different mechanics. Market share for your console will entice other companies to publish games for it, market share for your games will only effect how many copies you sell of that game.
Important Note
When your technicians aren’t working, they need to be doing training. All of them. Your researchers should also be constantly cycling through classrooms. As you go through the console generations, your competitors will release their next gen console faster and faster. Simply having a large research department/console room filled with scientists/technicians isn’t going to work. You need a large department filled with EXCELLENT (level 90) workers.
It’s a hassle to keep them trained and it uses up valuable space, but like I said, they are going to make you billions upon billions upon billions of dollars.
Price
Let’s say that you followed the previous section and you were able to release the next generation console before your competitors. Simply releasing the first next gen console will make you money, but now we’re going to talk about how to make tens of billions of dollars with a single console.
The new main price point for consoles seems to be $10 above production costs. It’s the ideal amount of profit and ability to gain market share. Just check the box for keeping consoles at $10 above production and you’ll be fine.
Basic Mechanics
Now the fun part. What makes a console sell better AFTER you release it? After extensive testing, this is what I discovered:
The initial 4-8 weeks of sales are going to be your highest weekly sales volume by quite a bit. Remember how I said that this is really important and we want it to be as high as possible? After the initial sales, your weekly sales/revenue will steadily decline over time BUT, we can prolong the decline as long as possible for maximum revenue. This is also why it’s important to get your next gen console on the market before anyone else, for maximum initial sales and market share. After the first few weeks/months, you will only sell less consoles (a lot less).
I usually developed a game for the console as the console was being built so that I could release a very popular game with overhype as soon as I released the console. Turns out you don’t need to. Here’s why:
-Releasing a game for your console does not cause a spike in sales, it just prevents console sales from declining at the normal rate. This isn’t an issue for the first month or so.
-Spikes in sales are random and out of your control, but releasing a game at the right time will keep your sales from declining again for a few weeks. If your weekly sales volume was 100,000 units and then it spikes up to 130,000 units, releasing a game at that time (within 1-3 weeks) will keep your weekly sales figure around 130,000 for a bit longer (unless you get a random decline in sales). Releasing a game seems to prevent console sale decline for about 4-12 weeks.
So basically, maximum profit means prolonging the death of your console sales for as long as possible, since the sales will naturally go down except for the random spikes upwards, which aren’t enough to keep it selling forever.
Console Hype
A factor for selling consoles (but not a huge factor) is keeping your console hype above 90 at all times. The best way to do this is to have 2 marketing departments, the normal marketing room for your games, and a smaller marketing room just for running TV ads on your consoles (stationary and handheld). The $500 you spend on TV ads is more than made up by the extra revenue that full hype on a console will get you. We’ll talk about how hype for games effects console sales later. (It doesn’t).
To put the marketing costs vs profits into perspective, a handheld and a stationary console made in 1980 generated $1,600,000,000 ($1.6bil) in profit until 1987, when I replaced them with the 3rd generation consoles. From there, the consoles just get more and more profitable by quite a bit. So don’t be afraid to go all out with spending on your consoles.
Games For Your Console
Once you get into the real console war of Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, things get a little detached from reality. In the real world:
Sony sells their consoles at a slight loss and relies on a variety of exclusive titles to draw people into the Playstation with the aim of getting you to buy PS+ (Playstation online), they also make a lot of money from third party licensing fees.
Microsoft sells their consoles at a substantial loss and makes the revenue up in game sales from the large portfolio of game studios that they outright own. They also sell these games for the PC because, well, Microsoft also sells Windows 10 and most PC gamers aren’t going to buy a console anyways (PC master race!). A console is a one time expense of $300 for them but each console owner will buy dozens of games at $60 each, not including DLC, in-app purchases, collector’s editions, etc, and a lot of those games will be from a studio that Microsoft outright owns.
Nintendo does sell their consoles for a profit because consoles are basically all that they have to profit from besides the games for those consoles. They don’t have PC sales like Microsoft or TV sales like Sony does. So Nintendo specializes in innovative consoles like the Wii and the Switch, which have a much more child/casual/family-friendly appeal instead of trying to get core gamers like Microsoft and Sony.
That’s not how it works here, because you do not own an entire portfolio of major game studios, an expansive online subscription service, and you aren’t Nintendo. You have to take a more direct approach.
As I said before, games DO NOT spike your console sales, they just keep them from declining. Here’s where things get interesting. It’s not just YOUR games that keep sales from declining, other companies publishing on your console will ALSO keep your console sales from declining. In one year+ I was able to have very stable console sales without making or even starting a single game, my competitors did all the work for me. This is where market share comes into play, the more market share you have the more your competitors will release games on your platform and so the more money YOU will make on console sales in the long run. 25% market share seems to be the point where other studios start buying dev kits for your consoles and publishing games on them.
Here’s the quick version:
-Set the dev kit price for your console to $1,000 so that anyone can purchase it.
-If you got the next gen console out before everyone else, then you don’t even need to worry about market share, it will build on its own. If you are late to the next gen console race, then you need to sell your console cheaper to make up lost market share so that other studios will make games for your console, they only make games for consoles with decent market share. You’ll lose money in the short term but their published games will keep your console sales going for longer.
-[Update] Don’t bother making engines for your console. If a competitor does buy your engine with your console as the “special platform”, that doesn’t mean that they will publish a game on your console. Engine sales are basically useless now and you are just giving your competition more technology to use against you.
-“Console exclusive games” will not do anything except lose you money. To be fair, I didn’t buy a Playstation because everyone said that Ratchet and Clank was so great (I went Xbox because that’s what I got for Christmas as a kid). Why would I buy a whole console for a game (or even 50 games) I’ve never even played? Microsoft has the solution here that also works in the game: release your game for your console AND the PC/Mac. But it runs better on your console of course.
This way you aren’t boosting your competitors, you prevent your console sales from declining, and you aren’t losing money on game sales. PC is its own market, so always sell on PC as your secondary platform. You aren’t competing with the PC, you are competing with the other consoles.
-Selling your console for below production cost will not boost your game revenue, regardless of market share (which is also why console exclusive games don’t work out). “It’s better to own 10% of an elephant than 100% of a rat”. The people who own your console + those people who want that game is just too small of an audience for very profitable games. You need those PC sales to keep your games profitable.
-The quality of the game doesn’t seem to matter much. A hit game will have about the same effect as a decent game, both will keep your console sales stable for a few weeks.
-Hype for your games has 0 effect on console sales. Game hype only effects the sales of the game itself, not the sales of your consoles. Over-hype doesn’t impact your console sales either.
And that’s how you become a billion dollar game company that wipes the floor with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
Best Guess
This is everything that I put together from trying things out (like going bankrupt with $-114 billion because I sold a console and a handheld for $59 each). I’d be shocked if everything in here was accurate. If you have something that you’ve noticed, feel free to comment with it so that people can test it out!
If there’s some kind of glaring flaw or something that is completely wrong, maybe that EggCode Dev person would be willing to point it out? 🙂
Component Timeline
All components are released on week 1 of the month. M6 = month 6. T = technology level.
1979 M6 – 1024 Bytes Ram T1+
1980 M5 – AMA Audio 1800 (audio card) T1+
1980 M6 – 1.5 MHz CPU T1+
1980 M7 – TV Interface ADP-X (graphics card) T1+
T1+ Consoles ready
1981 M2 – Heat Sink T2
1982 M2 – Controller 2, console case 2, handheld case 2 T2
1982 M4 – 1KB Memory Card T2
1982 M5 – 128KB Catridge T2
1982 M7 – 8KB Ram T2
1982 M10 – 2MHz CPU, Micron SX 100 (graphics card), Yahami OXL 500 (audio card) T2
T2 Consoles ready
1984 M4 – Micron SX 150 (sound card) T2+
1984 M9 – 4KB Memory Card T2+
1984 M11 – Yahami OXL 1000 T2+
1984 M12 – 3MHz CPU, 64KB Ram T2+
T2+ Consoles ready
1985 M5 – Small case fan T3
1985 M7 – 2.6 inch greyscale screen T2
T2 Handhelds ready
1986 M1 – Viana ACI 89 (sound card) T3
1986 M2 – 128KB Ram T3
1986 M4 – 4MHz CPU T3
1986 M5 – Video DP1000 (graphics card) T3
1986 M6 – Controller, console case, handheld case T3
1986 M10 – 8KB Memory Card T3
1986 M11 – 1MB Cartridge T3
T3 Consoles ready
1989 M3 – 512KB Ram T3+
1989 M6 – 3.2 inch color screen (handheld only)
T3 Handhelds ready
1989 M9 – Viana ACI 91 T3+
1990 M6 – 12 MHz CPU T3+
1990 M11 – Video DP 1500 (graphics card) T3+
1990 M12 – 32KB Memory Card T3+
1991 M1 – Small Case Fans for GPU and CPU T4
1991 M11 – Createch DMP 1 (sound card) T3+
T3+ Consoles ready
1992 M2 – 33MHz CPU, X Core 32 (graphics card) T4
NOTE: Engine tech will be above hardware tech at this point. Make sure to research the hardware FIRST since you can’t use the engine tech for your own consoles!
1992 M8 – 512KB Memory Card, controller, console case, handheld case T4
1992 M9 – 700MB CD T4
1992 M10 – 2MB Ram T4
T4 Consoles ready
1992 M11 – User profile console feature (Wait 1 month to get the console feature before developing your console, even though the hardware is unlocked)
1994 M7 – X Core 32 Plus (graphics card) T4+
1994 M12 – Createch BMP 11 (sound card) T4+
1994 M12 – 4MB Memory Card T4+
1995 M11 – 112MHz CPU, 8MB Ram T4+
T4+ Consoles ready
1996 M2 – High Performance Fan for CPU and GPU T5
1997 M5 – 32MB Memory Card T5
1997 M7 – Yahami Audio R3 (sound card), 4GB DVD T5
1997 M10 – 294MHz CPU, GFX Synth 147 (graphics card) T5
1997 M12 – 32MB Ram, controller, console case, handheld case T5
T5 Consoles ready
2000 M5 – 550MHz CPU T5+
2001 M1 – 3.6 inch touchscreen T4
2001 M6 – GFX Synth 233 (graphics card), Yahami Audio R7 (sound card), 64MB Memory Card
T5+
2002 M9 – 128MB Ram T5+
T5+ Consoles ready
2003 M6 – Tuned 3 Fan System T6, 512MB Cartridge T4
T4 Handhelds ready
2004 M2 – 512MB Ram T6
2004 M4 – 2 Core CPU, Nvaria RSX (graphics card) T6
2004 M5 – Controller, console case, handheld case, Createch STA Surround (sound card) T6
2004 M7 – 20GB Hard drive T6
2004 M8 – 25GB Blue DVD T6
T6 Consoles ready
2004 M12 – 4.5 inch touchscreen T5
T5 Handhelds ready
2007 M? – 2GB Cartridge T6
2007 M5 – 2GB Memory Card T6+
2008 M2 – 80GB Hard Drive T6+
2008 M4 – Createch STA Surround Pro (sound card) T6+
2008 M5 – 2GB Ram T6+
2008 M9 – 4.8 inch touchscreen T6
T6 Handhelds ready
2008 M11 – Nvaria RSX Pro (graphics card) T6+
2009 M2 – 4 Core CPU T6+
T6+ Consoles ready
2011 M7 – Modern 4 Fan System T7
2012 M1 – 8GB Ram, 500GB Hard Drive T7
Note: Engine tech will exceed hardware tech again!
2012 M4 – Controller, console case, handheld case T7
2012 M7 – 2×4 Core CPU T7
2012 M9 – Viana X HD 3000 (sound card) T7
2012 M12 – AMP Raidian (graphics card), 50GB Dual DVD T7
T7 Consoles ready
2015 M1 – AMP Radian NX (graphics card) T7+
2015 M8 – 8 Core CPU T7+
2015 M9 – 8GB Memory Card T7+
2015 M10 – 12GB Ram, 800GB Hard Drive, Viana X HD 5000 (sound card) T7+
T7+ Consoles ready
2017 M8 – Water Cooling, console case T8
2019 M4 – AMP RDNI 1000 (graphics card), 32GB Memory Card T8
2019 M5 – 1TB Hard Drive, 120GB HD DVD T8
2019 M6 – 16GB Ram T8
2019 M7 – Yahami Surround X19 (sound card) T8
2019 M8 – Controller, handheld case T8
2019 M9 – 8 Core Extreme CPU T8
T8 Consoles Ready
2020 M? – 5.1 inch 3D touchscreen T7
2020 M9 – 16GB Catridge T7
T7 Handhelds ready
2023 M5 – 12 Core CPU T8+
2023 M6 – AMP RDNI 1800 (graphics card), Yahami Surround X23 (sound card) T8+
2024 M4 – 32GB Ram T8+
2026 M? – 4TB Hard Drive T8+
2026 M11 – 512GB Memory Card
2027 M3 – 16 Core CPU T8+
T8+ Consoles ready