Also because almost every other tech company (Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, etc.) make their products at the exact same Foxconn factories. Apple just gets the biggest headline.

I don't see how that absolves Apple.

Apple gets the bigger headline because of their claim to support environmentalism and human rights.

It doesn’t absolve Apple but it explains why the headlines don’t stick. There is nothing unique about Apple in this regard and they don’t claim to make the phones anywhere else. Who makes their products are made isn’t even part of their corporate messaging.

Who said it absolves them? I think the point is just that there is no alternative which can match them without resorting to the same abuses.

Cite sources for that claim please.

You can look it up online.

Xbox Series X and S Manufacturer: Flextronics and Foxconn

Nintendo Switch Manufacturer: Foxconn

Sony Manufacturer: PlayStation 5 In-house (my mistake on them). PlayStation 3 and 4 were both made by Foxconn assisting.

But it also applies to others:

Google Pixel 5 Manufacturer: Foxconn

Kindle Manufacturer: Foxconn (Fire Tablets are made in Hong Kong by Quanta due to AOSP Anti-Fork rules)

Nintendo DS Manufacturer: Foxconn

Modern Nokia / HMD Global Devices Manufacturer: Foxconn

Xbox 360 Manufacturer: Foxconn

AMD Threadripper TR4 Socket Manufacturer: Foxconn

And so on. Apple, Foxconn. Because almost everybody uses Foxconn.

So when you see those articles about "Apple factory suicide nets," calling it the whole tech industry's contract manufacturer of choice would have been more apt.

Foxconn has lots of factories in lots of different places. Does it matter to specify which factory / place has the problem?

Perhaps, but unlikely.

I can’t find how many people worked at Foxconn at the time, but right now it’s employing more than the population of any of the smallest eight US states. Wikipedia’s list of suicide rates by state is from a different year than the population, but it looks like those states are about 5 times the population-adjusted rate that Foxconn had.

Wikipedia also says that China’s national suicide rate is difficult to study due to political concerns, before saying the WHO says it was 9.7/100k in 2016. That would mean you should expect closer to 126 suicides per year (in Foxconn’s current workforce), rather than the 14 in 6 months that made the news.

Steve Jobs was actually asked in an interview about Foxconn, and while he said suicides are horrible, they aren’t out of line with the general population statistically. Even though that was widely considered unfeeling.

No, it doesn't matter, as cheap labor in on fab subsidizes the other fabs, even if those would have best working conditions thinkable.

Apple probably gets the biggest headline because, of the four companies you listed in total, they're the biggest company.

I'm like 99% sure my Nintendo is made In Japan, or at least thats what it says on the box.

Nope. Nintendo DS was made at Foxconn. Nintendo 3DS was also made at Foxconn. The Wii was made at Foxconn. And Nintendo Switch is made at Foxconn.

They're assembled at Foxconn, the components themselves are typically made in much less formidable conditions, if you can believe it.

Maybe you read "designed in Japan" on the box, similar to how Apple likes to print their neat "designed in Cupertino" line on the package.

I read somewhere that 40% of all (consumer) electronic devices worldwide go through Foxconn. Pretty much everyone uses them. Don't see a proud "made in USA" or something like that on the website? Foxconn, most likely.

BTW some PS4s are made in Japan

Also making a lot money off what is essentially a huge casino. (games that use Addictive Gambling Mechanics to sell Micro-transations)

What's the net social outcome of this? Would these people be spending money at the casino instead?

No, most people don't have access to casinos. Likely they would spend it on other luxury goods like bar visits, clothes they don't need or more games. Its just a way for games to extract more money from the market without providing any more value than before.

The thing with games is that the box price is extremely under what consumers value them, so selling consumers small bits of the game as micro transactions is the way games extract their actual market value. It doesn't deliver more value than before, but the current monetization better represents the value it delivers to consumers.

That’s a good theory, but everyone I know that’s worked with game microtransaction data says the majority of money comes from a few “whales”.

Some whales clearly suffer mental health issues (just from looking at the timing and amount of the transactions). The remainder are almost exclusively money laundering of some sort (usually converting stolen credit cards to game assets that can be sold for real money).

Some whales spend $1000 every weekend at the club/bar. They simply have that much money and dont care how they spend it.

That is on android too. So Google too

It is too. (And Tencent, Epic, Blizzard, Valve, etc)