Then went back. They kept that reputation because they now hide all those numbers. But the 3DS tried that and was so expensive that no one was buying it. After a price cut, that some speculate went into a heavy loss, it became the best sold handheld that generation. The Wii U was also unclear whether it was sold at a loss or not. The Switch and S2 are probably sold exactly at cost.
Then went back with not trying to target high end with the original switch, with everyone complaining that it was equivalent to a mid phone of the year
Also, consoles are historically loss leaders. Lose a little money on the console, but make it back with the margins on your games.
Could be that modern game studios have just gotten too expensive for that model to continue, though.
Nintendo was the only company that ditched the loss-leader thing after burning itself with the N64 and GameCube.
Then went back. They kept that reputation because they now hide all those numbers. But the 3DS tried that and was so expensive that no one was buying it. After a price cut, that some speculate went into a heavy loss, it became the best sold handheld that generation. The Wii U was also unclear whether it was sold at a loss or not. The Switch and S2 are probably sold exactly at cost.
Then went back with not trying to target high end with the original switch, with everyone complaining that it was equivalent to a mid phone of the year