Ok, but R&D on a given product eventually stops. Over the lifetime of a good, it becomes a smaller and smaller proportion of overall costs.
Comment on Valve's new hardware will NOT be loss leaders
hperrin@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Even if they sell at cost, they’re losing money because of the R&D costs.
AppleTea@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Nilz@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
…But then in turn they’ll earn money with Steam sales, so they’ll be earning money.
hperrin@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Yes, but that’s a different sale. My point is it can still be considered a loss leader if they sell it at cost. It took them many millions to develop it, so overall they would be losing money on the hardware sales.
That’s as opposed to something like Costco’s hot dogs. There was no R&D there, so if they sold it at cost, I wouldn’t consider it a loss leader.