In answer to your question: All N64 cartridges (as of today) are made in Japan out of components sourced in Japan and Taiwan (The mask roms come from Taiwan, a company called Macronix). They are then assembled in Japan and shipped to the US.
However, in the future N64 carts for US consumption will be assembled not by Nintendo of Japan but by Nintendo of America. The components, however, will still come from Japan and Taiwan.
As for the higher costs, well it is true that the costs of making cartridge games are higher, and Sony and its publishers always like to point out how their "model" is better. On paper their model is much better, higher margins, lower costs, etc. In the real world, however, "models" are meaningless without execution, and this is where the Nintendo camp shines, IMHO.
Nintendo publishers are by my estimates more profitable than Sony publishers for an important reason: 1) Too many Sony titles, fracturing the marketplace (over 700) so each publisher sells less units than they could on Nintendo EVEN with Sony's larger installed base.
just my opinions;
best regards;
Joe |
