For systems like the 360/PS3 the profit is very minimal if anything because most retailers will look more at tie ratios. Your probably looking at $8-$10 profit per system sold, but most buyers will tell you it is basically nothing after all other expenses are factored in. If a system is sold with games and accessories they boost the profit margin considerably. That is why you see the bundles everywhere obviously. The Wii is a different story because Nintendo's development costs are significantly lower for the minimilistic system specs compared to the other two.
For NEW games (roughly):
Retailer makes 20% initially (before they start their manipulation of factoring in all other costs)
Publisher makes about $16 per sale on average.
Wholesalers typically pay around $30 per game.
Costs of getting the goods to the wholesalers, any co-op advertising or marketing, and return of good contingencies are roughly $14 per game, the publisher is going to typically get $16 for every unit sold as stated above.
Average development cost of medium to semi-high profile title for 360/PS3 title is +$15 million. Wii game is $10 million. With manufacturing, promoting and marketing these amounts jump to $20-$60 million and 15-20 respectively. Obviously these numbers can be considerably higher or lower.
Casual games built on flash can be as low as $25,000 to develop thus prices can be reduced significantly. This is often the case with Wii titles.
Lower profile titles can get by with 500k in sales to break even but obviously strive for the 1 million plus mark.
USED games:
Profit 40-50% (give or take factoring aggregate costs)
Going back some years, I started in a small town store only selling new systems, games and accessories generating 900k a year with a 18% profit margin annually.
When I left we were generating 2.3 million in sales per year with a 31-34% profit margin (greatly attributable to used or pre-played sales).
Trying to figure out profit margin for Gamestop or other big retailers is the equivalent of trying to figure out government or hospital billing/costs. Your not just paying for the aspirin, your also paying for the doctor's salary and everything else that they deem connected to it.
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