> It wouldn't even be surprising if they sold the consoles at a loss

Of the Wii, the XBox 360, and the PS3, only the Wii wasn't sold at a loss at release. The idea that they would sell at a loss isn't new. They make their money on the games.

IIRC, there were even people promoting buying the original XBox just to mod it and run Linux on it, because every sale was a hit to Microsoft's pocket (since you weren't using it for games).