Consoles are not cheaper than PCs?

zakhal

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At first console might be cheaper but then services like msoft live and the consolemakers tax on games evens out the difference quite a bit.

Assasins Creed PC 47.00€
Assasins Creed Xbox 360 64.90€
Assasins Creed PS3 67.90€

BioShock PC 46.90€
BioShock Xbox 360 66.90€
BioShock Xbox 360 66.90€

Colin McRae DIRT PC 46.90€
Colin McRae DIRT Colin McRae DIRT Xbox 360 64.90€
Colin McRae DIRT Colin McRae DIRT PS3 64.90€

Live Gold 12 * 16,50€ = 198€.

You pay up to 15-20€ more (this seems to be like a rule) per game on the consoles. If you buy say 40 games during the consoles lifetime you have paid som 600-800€ more for games than on PC.

Add in a cost of the box 398€ and you come up with 1200€ (+live 1400€) that buys you a very decent pc especially if you reuse som of the old components (like power, case, harddrive, dvd-player, windowsxp, etc).

So in the end console isnt that much cheaper than PC really. I do own ps2 though but only because they dont release som of its games on PC and the thin version is so small and cheap (120€ dvdcase-size).
 
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I just upgraded my PC in order to play Bioshock (well, it needed an upgrade anyway but Bioshock was the trigger).

I mainly needed a new graphics card but for the newer generation to work, I would also need a new motherboard (no PCI Express slot on my previous one). New Motherboard meant new CPU and new RAM because the newer MBs doesn't support the old DDR1 RAM I had.

So that's 4 components and to get it all to work I also needed a new PSU. All in all: I spent around €1000 just to upgrade my PC. Sure the game was indeed about €30 cheaper for the PC than the Xbox360 but even if I didn't have an 360 already it would "only" have cost me about €350 plus an additional €70 for the game. Now that is a difference of approximately €625 and with an average saving of €30 per game that means more than 20 games ... provided you buy them all at full price.

It may very well be that in the long run it could be more or less evened out but remember that in order to be able to match the performance of the console you have to keep your PC updated and the one I just replaced was not even 3 years old yet it was hopelessly outdated so if you want to stay on the cutting edge and play a game like Bioshock with all the bells and whistles then you probably have to upgrade your PC more often than you do your console.

Oh and by the way, the Gold membership cost is only if you plan to play online on your 360. If you're satisfied with singleplayer then there is no need to pay that fee.
 
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I can only say that in second-hand markets the price for console games is - even after lots of years - much higher than for PC games.

So, if you sell your console game - in a good shape, of course - you get much more money than selling a PC game in the same timeframe.
 
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The # of games recently released that used all capabilities of my $2000 upgrade last year (2 SLI cards, 4800+ AMD, 2gb high latency ram) have been less than five. Bioshock is the first huge PC release since S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that's like 6 months between 2 interesting titles. Still, I have finished over 90 games since the beginning of 2006 but the majority of them were old enough to play on my old computer.
 
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I think it all depends on the type of gamer you are.

If you play a lot of titles and must own them, and you need to do the Live thing and all that, sure youll rack up some coin pretty quickly on console. However, if youre like me and would only grab a few select titles (maybe renting instead of owning), and were not necessarily interested in playing with other players, you could certainly pay less in the long run.
 
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OK, here is a basic run of numbers:
You buy a PC and X360 on Day 1 of a 5 year life cycle. You can keep the XBOX for 5 years but need a new PC after 2.5 years. You buy 100 games over 5 years, 50 are top price, 30 are 2nd tier and 20 are low price (not budget).

Assuming that the PC costs $2500 and the XBOX360 costs $400, and that the 'Top/Middle/Bottom' for PC & XBOX are $50/40/30 and $60/50/40, I come up with a five year cost of:
PC - $9300
XB - $5700

Dropping the PC price by $500/ea, adding in the external drive for XBOX and also 5 years of XBOX Live service, I get:
PC - $8300
XB - $6150

Not so wide of a margin but still not equal.
 
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We can see who is the statistician amongst us. :)

What about the more uses factor for PC, though? AFAIK, you can only use the console at least right now for gaming, while you could conceivably get the $2,000. margin back if as most people do, you use your pc for internet, photo aps, multi-media, kids homework, etc. So that kind of money for something you can use in a wide variety of applications does make a pc seem less financially unattractive.
 
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I like the fact that PC games are cheaper, because when buying them I don't feel "bad" because of the price, like I do when I buy a Wii game. They are simply too expensive for me to want to invest in console games.
I would rather pay a big amount of money at one time instead of spreading them throughout a period of time. I don't have to carry this guilt then.

But yes, looking from an investment point of view there's less inflation in console games.
 
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What about the more uses factor for PC, though?

I think you need to look at it as gaming PC vs a regular office PC (which has effectively turned into a household appliance). Just about everyone has at least an office PC in addition to a console so it's not an either/or kind of thing. Besides, a PC for office stuff or even photo editing, "multimedia" (whatever that may be ;) ) etc. could be years old. Even a 1GHz CPU, 512MB - 1024MB RAM, 20GB hard disk will totally suffice for most SoHo or Media Center purposes.
 
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Well you have to justify buying that big rig somehow. ;)

(My enduser def of multi-media(not that I have it--I have a 10 year old tv and a boom box cuz I spent all my money on a computer, but) multi-media = all those things that impress your buds, like big giant plasma tvs, dvd players, faxes, printers, scanners and massive speakers and stuff in every room of the house that people hook-up to their machine.)
 
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Assuming that the PC costs $2500 and the XBOX360 costs $400,

Those PC costs are way up. My major upgrades since 2002:

2003 totally new pc around 1000 (includes selling of old parts)
2004 (i broke my cpu :/ ) new motherboard, cpu, graphics card, more memory 500 (includes selling of old parts)
2007 totally new pc around 1200 (includes selling of old parts)

So in the 5-year frame i spent "only" 2600 bucks of hard cash. That includes new monitor even and one broken cpu that I had to replace. Without the braking of my cpu I could have managed with less say 2300 possibly. But nowhere near 5000.

So you can buy pc pretty cheap if you sell your old parts and reuse the existing (windows xp, power, case, harddrive etc) as much as possible. Even then you can still get a powerful gaming pc like my c2d E6600 + 8800GTS while the console owners are enjoying time with 5 year old xbox and its "dated" graphics ( :eek: ).
 
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Those PC costs are way up.
I am assuming 'gaming system off the shelf', and based on that I feel OK with my numbers.

Of course, I game on laptops, which tend to run me ~$4000 about every 18 months ... so do *those* numbers ...
 
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I bought my PC almost 5 years ago.
P IV 2.4 GHz, 512MB RAM, Some kind of GeForece graphics card (not a good one, but very nice for its time MX something), 120 GB Hard Drive 7200 rpm.
It cost about 2100€. I didn't pay anything more until the start of this year when the PC was about 4 years old. I then bought 2 GB of RAM and a new GeForce 7600 GS, I don't remember how much it cost me, but in now way do I get even near your 5000$ estimate. Max 3000$. I can play most games with at least medium graphics w/o any stuttering except maybe for some places in GIII. I haven't tried Bioshock yet, but I don't think my PC won't be able to handle it.
So if you remove about 1500-2000$ from your estimates you get that the PC costs a little bit more than an Xbox and I can use it as a DVD player, for school work, internet, MSN, Facebook... I can even buy/sell stuff from Ebay and the like, I can play almost any kind of game with ease (strategy, RPG, FPS...) I can download demos, use programs for developing photographs...

So, all in all, I believe the PC is worth a lot more than the XBox or any other console out there, at least for now. :p
 
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Many of the posted numbers seem to be skewed in favour of the consoles. I wonder how you guys can spend so much on PC hardware. ;)

One of the main advantages of a PC is the possibility to upgrade it. You can add more RAM or replace key parts when you feel the need. The old parts can be sold on Ebay. I don´t see myself spend anywhere close to 500 EUR net average per year on my PC.

Everybody already has an adequate monitor, which means a 19" CRT or better. A HD television on the other hand is not standard nowadays, and it won´t be for the foreseeable future. But an XBox360 or PS3 without HD doesn´t make sense. So I think you have to factor in this cost and add the additional positive features of a HD TV set.

Games for consoles are much more expensive than PC games, have a longer price stability and not all of them become widely available as a budget re-release. Compilations are an exception on consoles. I can get the last Play the Games with 10 2 year old 60%-90% games for 15 EUR. A new price point of 2.50 EUR for classics has just been established by AK Tronic. Where is the lowest price point on current gen consoles? 20 EUR? 15 EUR? Time is clearly working for the PC.
The money you get back on Ebay is more or less identical in percent of the new price on both platforms, I think.
 
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I fear that my PC is too old for simple upgrading.

If I buy a new motherboard, I most likely won't be able to use all components I have, then (inclusive the sound card).

I fear that I would have to buy too many new components, then.

And regarding graphics cards ... I think a high-end Directx 8 card is sufficient nowadays for me ... I don't believe there are too many directx 9 games I'd play ...

By the way, is there somewhere a list of (if possible) all directx 9 games out there ? (I mean regarding the needed graphics capabilities.)
 
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I fear that my PC is too old for simple upgrading.
The correct upgrade path for you: Buy a PC at the retailer of your choice and replace the graphics card. Keep your old PC to play the classics. Maybe wait for Vista SP1 before you do so. While you´re at it install Linux and XP.

If I buy a new motherboard, I most likely won't be able to use all components I have, then (inclusive the sound card).
Onboard sound is pretty good nowadays, unless you have an excellent sound set attached to your PC.
You´ll certainly need CPU, mainboard, cooler, power supply, graphics card, RAM. Which leaves HDD(s), other drives, case, mouse, keyboard and maybe PCI sound card. Your old stuff is worth close to nothing.
I wouldn´t upgrade. Use the old PC for backward compatibility.


And regarding graphics cards ... I think a high-end Directx 8 card is sufficient nowadays for me ... I don't believe there are too many directx 9 games I'd play ...
Completely wrong. In 12 months every new game will require DX9 - and games with optional DX9 features look clearly worse on DX8. There´s no reason not to buy a fast DX9 card or a solid DX10 card. Or better wait for the next wave of DX10 cards, then spend 150-200 EUR.

By the way, is there somewhere a list of (if possible) all directx 9 games out there ? (I mean regarding the needed graphics capabilities.)
I don´t know such a list. But let me ask you: Why use EGA if you have to buy a new card and EGA and VGA cards cost the same? ;)
 
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Many of the posted numbers seem to be skewed in favour of the consoles. I wonder how you guys can spend so much on PC hardware. ;)
Clearly I only took retail numbers, which could be perhaps cut to ~$1500 if we exclude a monitor, since you wouldn't figure in a $1500 HD set for the XBOX360.
 
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I think you do have to include at least a 70 cm HD TV set for the console. I guess the current HD penetration in most European countries is below 5%. You can´t assume the customer already has one. A PC monitor of at least 19" on the other hand is something many PC users have, and even if not, new 19" - 22" TFTs are cheap.

You can get complete gamer PCs for less than 1000 EUR, including Vista and replacing the graphics card.

The price difference here is 20 EUR per game, not counting sales.
 
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I want to play BioShock in Vista but I do not want to give up Windows XP just yet, so I will probably need to buy another harddrive and when I buy harddrives I never go cheap, a philosophy that always make me buy more expensive hardware that I cannot afford.
 
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Okay, Gorath, you are in principle right.

I have figured that to a whole part already out myself (yes, the grammar ...)

And ... I'd rather use Win2K or xp than Vista. I don't think Vista would be good enough for me right now.

And Linux ... regardless. I'd run Ubuntu (which i have already installed).
 
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