You must not be familiar with mass manufacturing. Companies cut corners to save a penny or two on units all the time. Wikipedia says 69.91 million units were sold. It isn't clear if this is just western ones that would have this port on the bottom, or NES and Fami both. Let's say it is both and be generous and say that only 40 million western style toaster units were sold with the unused port on the bottom. Let's also say that the plug only cost a penny, though it likely cost something more like 5-10 cents I would think.KalessinDB wrote:Also on the topic of some of the original posts "saving money" by not putting the expansion ports on - you realize the cost of these ports is a matter of pennies, right? Certainly nothing that they worried about vs the possible money they could've made with an expansion -- even a not very popular one (but MAN was the Game Boy Player fan-freaking-tastic)
Even at 1 penny and just 40 million units, that is still $400,000 just for the cost of the plugs. You also have to add on the time that people had to unload the components from trucks and boxes, distribute them to the assembly line, and the extra few seconds of labor to attach every one of those connectors. Believe me there are accountants that sweat these details.