The Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons reportedly cost more to make than the amount that they're sold for, according to a new teardown of the controllers. The information comes not long after the cost of manufacturing the Nintendo Switch console itself was also revealed.

According to Japanese teardown firm Fomalhaut, which was also responsible for that Switch console teardown, it costs a massive $90 to make a pair of Joy-Con controllers. With a controller pair typically retailing for $79, this means that Nintendo is losing a minimum of $11 for each pair that it sells. Fomalhaut explains that this is due to the fact that each Joy-Con features 20 very small and intricate parts; though it's unclear whether the special piece of foam used to fix controller connectivity problems has also been taken into account here.

With many users reporting Joy-Con problems, many will be surprised that Nintendo is spending so much money on making them. How can hardware that costs $45 to make, apiece, suffer from so many problems? And how much would it cost to create a pair of controllers that worked completely as intended the first time around?

nintendo switch joy-con

Many will also be asking how much Nintendo has lost then, as a result of Joy-Con refunds. Several players have said that they have been forced to ask for their money back from retailers due to the controllers not working properly. So, if Nintendo is losing over $10 on each pair, all of those refunds will stack up and the company could potentially be losing thousands, if not millions of dollars, on replacements for controllers that don't break in the first place.

On the other hand though, some will argue that as the Nintendo Switch has been selling phenomenally and as the company makes a profit off of every Switch console sold, Nintendo has more than broken even. The more Switch consoles it sells, the more it can offset those Joy-Con manufacturing costs.

Moreover, even if Joy-Cons aren't making the company any money, this matters less if players are buying extra Joy-Con pairs and more multiplayer games in tandem. Games such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and wacky fighting game ARMS won't come cheap and Nintendo will no doubt be able to make money from these, even if its controllers lead to a loss.

Source: Nintendo Today