Surprise!
I just had a thought about the Xbox 360 and its accouterments (not common!), especially pertaining to its functionality-to-price profile versus standalone products. I used this to derive an estimate of the actual value of the gaming portion of the 360 to someone who is using all the corollary features of the 360.
$399.99 Xbox 360
$99.99 Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter
$199.99 Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player
= $699.97
The Xbox 360 is a media center extender (the only one not currently in e-retail “View Other Buying Options” purgatory, in fact).
$150.00 Media Center Extender (eBay estimate)
$399.99 Toshiba HD-DVD Player
= $549.99
So, gaming is worth about $150 of consumer value, if you exercise all those implied options like HD-DVD, and actually using the MCE functionality.
Too bad the gaming on a 360 isn’t worth $0.07 to me.