> Keep in mind that console dev kits of past were devices produced almost manually in very limited numbers
You might be thinking of the alpha dev kits. Those were basically gigantic metal wirewraps, and if you were at a large game dev you might get one or two locked away in a conference room. I can't remember off hand if those cost anything actually? You had to be a substantial game studio to get one in the first place, and Sony took them back.
Either way, that's not what I was thinking of. The production PS2 dev kits (called "TOOL") cost $thousands and were not manually constructed. A game team would have a lot of these. I can't imagine these cost as much to build as they charged, especially years after the PS2 launched.[1]
[1] - I wish I could remember/find the price for the TOOL, I want to say it was like $10 or $20K, even 2-3 years after PS2 launched?
You might be thinking of the alpha dev kits. Those were basically gigantic metal wirewraps, and if you were at a large game dev you might get one or two locked away in a conference room. I can't remember off hand if those cost anything actually? You had to be a substantial game studio to get one in the first place, and Sony took them back.
Either way, that's not what I was thinking of. The production PS2 dev kits (called "TOOL") cost $thousands and were not manually constructed. A game team would have a lot of these. I can't imagine these cost as much to build as they charged, especially years after the PS2 launched.[1]
[1] - I wish I could remember/find the price for the TOOL, I want to say it was like $10 or $20K, even 2-3 years after PS2 launched?