Consoles are cheaper than Gaming PCs - think again

[Deadlight]

But then - who cares?

[DeludedGuy]

Two different machines, yes, but I prefer playing games on the PC.....unless its a good old Tekken 2/Soul Calibur 2 Beat em up!!

[unreal]

I think i said that, read it again.

Also, you may have to updrade more often, but when i look at my mates PsS2 game collection he has about 100 games! Times that 100 by 20 (the ammount saved by getting pc games over console games) and thats £2000!

And ok so my mat has alot of games but 50 games is still gunna be £1000!

Also, its worth something to say how much better PC graphics are all of the time.

The average maximum amount of games I've seen owned by friends and myself is around the 30 mark, and that is built steadily over years. Renting games, as well as borrowing comes into it a lot.

And as someone else said, the lifespan of a console is far larger than a PC. A PC from 5 years ago can't even run todays games as most of them need a DX9 card... so specifically for gaming - which is what a console is for - its a good investment. But ultimately a PC is technically worth more as it has far more functions, which is why most/all of us here own PC's of some sort.

I also don't think people understand quite the power the PS3 and 360 are waiting to show... the thing is, is that all the games look like PC games. Correct. Because I guess they can't go much further right now in terms of graphical substance unless long development periods come into it (Unreal 3 engine anyone?). When the PC continues spiralling up into power, and we all need to upgrade, the 360 and PS3 will be kicking strong, will match that new upgrade level and still play just as smoothly as it did the previous year. Now if I am wrong on that, these consoles aren't as powerful as the corporations claim they were - I am not in a position to believe them or correct them 100%.

[jonneymendoza]

also note that you can EASILY play copied games on the pc without spending money modding your console heheh,wagwan keith

[unreal]

>_> I smell a ban lol

[jonneymendoza]

Na im just stating facts that you can,not indicating has to how you can etc.... but u need to concider all aspects when discussing issues

[Swafe]

The main argument towards a gaming console being "better" is because they are cheap. What people seem to forget is that i cant think of anyone i know who does not have a PC, and especially i think it is unlikey that anyone would not have a PC who had an Xbox 360 lol

If we take a mid range PC that most people own at about £600 or £700 and then take the cost of an xbox360 £300, and then add it to the price of that PC then you have quite a powerfull gaming PC (the extra money on better cpu, ram, graphics or whatever. Then facor in that a new Pc game from CDwow is is £half the price of a PC game then the prices all become very samey.

Plus an HDTV costs alto more than a 19" TFT but there is not much argument over that, HDTV=Big lol

Just my 2pence of school boardom

And you reckon a 600 or 700 quid PC would come anywhere near to the graphics capability of the 360?

If you factor in a 28inch HDTV, then its 600 quid, 900 for a a 360 and a HDTV

Now how much is a PC that can emulate the specs of the 360 cost you, with a 28inch TFT? LOL

[jonneymendoza]

lol probably well over £2000.

[Swafe]

Nuff said

[nvening]

Please remember that companys exagerate thier consoles, when ps2 came out sony said that they were going to be used in neuclear missiles.

All the power that these consoles supposively have will just be wasted by the same engine being used 100s of times and then one new one will come out which looks quite a bit better 2 years later, which will then be used over and over again.

There is not point in having so much power if it is never going to be used.

[Swafe]

But the 360 already looks like a top end PC game running on a 8800GTX1024mb with all the dangly bits, and microsoft have already admitted they didnt have time to optimise the 3 core code and all the launch games are infact, all the launch titles are only single threading on 1 core, when they optimise it fully and use the full power, things might get nuclear

And even if they dont, its great value for money, a top end spec PC for 280 quid, even if you use it on your PC monitor youll get decent res and Im sure if they was next to each other, the 360 would the 1/3 the size of your base unit, and probably 1/3 of the price, and maybe still better.

[autopilot]

I prefer sprouts..... my missus prefers cabbage.

Does that help ?

Yeah, sprouts last longer but cabdage has more uses.

[directhex]

what people need to remember, of course, is where the games are - and to a degree, why. pc games aren't as profitable as console games - the cost of support is higher, margins are lower, and there's more competing products. plus ongoing support costs like master servers, paying developers to make patches, etc etc etc.

however, pc game development can be very cheap, so it's more common for "bedroom coders" to work on the pc - and you get products like darwinia or ragdoll kung fu which would never have been funded for console development

it's important to target a game at the right system - nobody wants to play an RTS with a joypad, nobody wants to play a beat'em'up with a mouse. consider the way console games are played - in front of a big tv with mates, not locked in a bedroom.

should it be an "either or" situation? absolutely not. i play games, not formats - if a good game is on ps2, cube, pc or whatever, then i'll get it and play it as the developers intended.

as for the double-the-price thing, i think it's cheating somewhat to compare high-street to play.com prices (new pc games are still 35 quid on the high street, compared to 40 for console games, and the five quids don't add up to the hardware cost difference over 5 years)

[BEANFro Elite]

You may also like to note that the reason consoles are so much cheaper than the PCs at launch is because the companies know that by charging £30 - £40 per game they can easily recouperate any costs to research, manufacture and market the console and still make a fat profit on top, think about it.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Son's of Liberty supposely sold 1.5 million copies in the first two weeks of gonig on sale, so £40 x 1.5 million = £45,000,000 now if you consider the large number of games on sale, the companies can easily recouperate their losses from the consoles...

I remember being told that the PS2 cost £1,700 each to manufacture (excluding the costs of R&D and other royalties for patented technologies...)

Just thought I'd throw THAT in to help make things...more interesting

[directhex]

most console hardware is initially sold at a loss - though usually only £100-£200 per unit (though i don't think nintendo have ever needed to)

bear in mind you need to factor assorted margins in to sale prices of games, though - a £40 PS2 game covers about £12 retailer margin, £5 wholesaler margin, and £10 publisher margin. sure, MGS2 was still a profitable title, but these things don't appear on the shelves by magic

[Smokey21]

You can't compare the 2, a PC is so much more than a gaming platform.