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Are console really cheaper?

F

Frosteh

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 30, 2004
Messages
3,664
I've started a thread about this some time ago which is long gone but constantly still see people argue that consoles a lot cheaper as an argument for getting one, it's a statement I like to think is inaccrate.

The console business model is aimed at making a closed platform (i.e you need a licence from sony to make a PS3 game) so that sony themselves can make money on every game thats sold. With this in mind the aim is to get a large as possible userbase, this means selling the hardware as cheap as possible and indeed selling the hardware for less than it costs to develop and manufactur. However this additional fee that has to goto the console designers hikes up the prices of games to compensate.

Here in the UK it's general considered that play.com is the cheapes place to get media including games, and here's some price quotes from their store all in (£ pounds sterling)

Elder Scrolls Oblivion
PC = 17.99
PS3 = 39.99

Splinter Cell Double agent
PC = 9.99
PS3 = 39.99

Rainbow 6 Vegas
PC = 17.99
PS3 = 39.99

Need for Speed Carbon
PC = 24.99
PS3 = 39.99

F.E.A.R
PC = 6.99
PS3 = 39.99

PC total = £77.95
PS3 total = £199.95

Total difference over 5 games - £122

Bear in mind that I just spent £150 selling my 7950GX2 (£+200) and upgrading to my 8800GTX (£-350)

Who thinks over the lifespan of a console maybe 4-5 years tops, that this difference makes up for the higher price of PC hardware?
 
To me consoles are much more money. I have Played the same game on my PC for the last 4 years. I play it everyday, and do not plan on getting a new one until COD 4.Maybe i will buy quake wars. I own a 360, games for that that get old fast so i am always looking for new games. I figures i spend 120.00 to 180.00 per month on 360 games. Plus on top of that there is the stupid points for buying the stuff you should get for free. So in the last 6 months of owning my 360 i have spent about 1500.00 to 2000.00 on games and hardware. Which is about the same as i spent on my PC in the last 6 Months.(even though i only play one game i am a upgrade whore) So in all reality consoles are just as expense as a PC even more so since you really need a good HD TV to really enjoy it. Just my 2 cents
 
Also consider all the things that you cannot feasably use a console for. Browsing the internet (possible but not practical), word, excel, messenger, graphics work you name it. Most of the people who own consoles still need a Windows or OS X machine at home too, so the real question is if a midiocre PC + a Console is cheaper to run than an upper to high end PC alone.

Not considering the price of games for consoles vs. price for games for PCs I'd say they are about the same considering that what makes a PC upper class is $300 more on the GFX card and $300 more for memory, cooling and maybe a faster CPU.

Oh and don't compare consoles + mediocre PCs to Entusiast PCs, Console entusiasts don't buy vanilla XBOX 360 coresystems either, nor do they play on 28" CRT TVs. :)
 
Ah almost forgot... Is it worth considering if the money saved on cheaper games for the PC over the lifetime of the average console is about the same as the amount of needed upgrades for said PC. Only because upgrades are generally bigger one time expences it feels like much more money?
 
Hell yer Console more expensive

one thing not mentioned is modding. You get more out of PC games then you could out of a console game
 
Consoles cost more and do less, game prices put me off for sure.

Assuming you dont sit right at the cutting edge, PC's are so cheap to upgrade these days.
Even when the latest console apears, its not long before PC hardware gives you more power (than the console) for less cost in upgrading!
That and the game prices are mostly much cheaper :)

When a performance console is first released they are often fantastic hardware for the price compared to a PC but nearly all the first games arent up to par so there is little value then.
Once the decent games come out, PC's have caught up and are better value in my humble opinion.

There are plenty of arguments for consoles which I do agree with but this answer was tailored at which is best value for money.
 
Frosteh said:
Elder Scrolls Oblivion
PC = 17.99
PS3 = 39.99

Splinter Cell Double agent
PC = 9.99
PS3 = 39.99

Rainbow 6 Vegas
PC = 17.99
PS3 = 39.99

Need for Speed Carbon
PC = 24.99
PS3 = 39.99

F.E.A.R
PC = 6.99
PS3 = 39.99

PC total = £77.95
PS3 total = £199.95

Total difference over 5 games - £122

Bear in mind that I just spent £150 selling my 7950GX2 (£+200) and upgrading to my 8800GTX (£-350)

Who thinks over the lifespan of a console maybe 4-5 years tops, that this difference makes up for the higher price of PC hardware?
Click to expand...


:rolleyes:

I'm sorry I'm a PC gamer (well gamer all together see sig) but...REALLY...give me an F'ing break.

OK all those games for PS3...JUST coming out for it. They were the same price on PC when they were first released. Why don't you start comparing the price of say..Bioshock which will have a $10 price difference from PC to console, but to have the same look and feel as playing it on a PC and playing on a console, The PC will be more expensive.
 
Netrat33 said:
:rolleyes:

I'm sorry I'm a PC gamer (well gamer all together see sig) but...REALLY...give me an F'ing break.

OK all those games for PS3...JUST coming out for it. They were the same price on PC when they were first released. Why don't you start comparing the price of say..Bioshock which will have a $10 price difference from PC to console, but to have the same look and feel as playing it on a PC and playing on a console, The PC will be more expensive.
Click to expand...

Actually you have a point, a lot of these games are older for the PC and so have had more time to drop in price.

However, the RRP of the PS3 games is still £49.99 on average, and the PC is £34.99 or sometimes £29.99

That's still a £20 difference between the RRP's or roughly $40
 
Frosteh said:
Actually you have a point, a lot of these games are older for the PC and so have had more time to drop in price.

However, the RRP of the PS3 games is still £49.99 on average, and the PC is £34.99 or sometimes £29.99

That's still a £20 difference between the RRP's or roughly $40
Click to expand...

no it depends on the title. AAA titles are typically about $10 dollars difference between the two. But to get the same image quality/speed in no slowdowns between the two asks for a varity of things before it happens on a PC. Videocards, multicore CPUs, and RAM, that all gets extremely expensive fast. To get the same performance and image quality on a PC you HAVE to upgrade your videocard first which you're lookign at spending at least $400 on average. More if you REALLY care about making sure your games on on a native resolution assuming most people are using LCDS. That alone you're now at the cost of a console. Then you have to spend $300 on a processor that is comparable to the console counterpart (and PS3 doesn't really have anything in it's league except maybe quad cores but yes that is apples and oranges) Then you have to get at least 2 gigs of RAM these days to be comparable to the console.

Yes I know computers are upgradeable. Whatever I like my pc and tinkering too but that's not the argument. You buy a console for one thing, to play games. People mentioning "well a PC can surf the net and do a word doc or whatever" ....COME ON.... You're typical computer user doesn't need a $400 card for surfing the web. You buy these cards to play games. And sadly you can buy used PC games as easy. Consoles it's easier to buy and trade your games and get used games saving you money too. You can't really argue that for simply GAMING that a console is a cheaper and easier method.
 
It's the same with the 360 as well. Go into any highstreet retail store and look at a recently released cross-platform game on both 360 and PC. The PC one is generally £15 - £20 cheaper.
 
Well I dont see any prices in the UK which demonstrate such a close margin between PC games and console games, they tend to be £15-£20 as mentioned above, the older the games get the prices get closer as they both drop but PC games still remain cheaper.
 
This argument is very subjective.

The gamer who buys tons of accessories and peripherals for a console could well spend the same amount of money on hardware over a 5 year span as a gamer who modestly upgrades his PC during that same 5 year period.

And console games generally cost a bit more than their PC equivalent, so if a console gamer and pc gamer bought the same games over the same amount of time, the console gamer would likely spend more on the games.

And then there's the flip side, where a console gamer may stick with the barebones console and the pc gamer may upgrade to the latest cpu and video card every six months in which case, of course the pc gamer is gonna spend a lot more on hardware.

It really doesn't matter. Gaming is a very individual hobby. Those who want to spend "ridiculous" amounts of money on it will, while others won't.
 
consoles are cheaper for me. to upgrade and get good graphics for a pc is gonna cost me more than the 400 for my 360 and probably more than the 600 for my ps3. i havent upgraded in a while so for me it'll be new cpu, vid card, mobo, ram and psu. not to mention extra cooling if im oc'ing, as well as a higher premium on the parts id select.

yes you can get more use out of a pc, but the majority of those things people usually mention (email, web, etc) can be done on a 5 year old budget laptop for $300.

but considering [H] consists of pc gamers, it's not surprising about the comments
 
Buying a $400 Xbox 360 has definitely saved me money...I haven't had a single urge to make expensive upgrades to my pc since last summer. Also, when comparing the costs of games you have to consider that you can join a console game rental service for as low as $10 a month...I've never paid $60 for any game.
 
I think alot of PC only gamers forget that you can rent console games, so the difference in price isnt really a valid point. You dont have to pay full price for games unless you want to (or in rare circumstances like MMO's or games like guitar hero). For ~$150 a year you can have access to pretty much any console game you want to play whenever you want to play it for as long as you wish to keep it, vs. the 3 or 4 new PC games you'd be able to get with the same amount of money.

Unless you can't rent games in the UK, which if thats the case I see your point (but only for those that live in the UK).
 
Renting means you pay $179.4 ($14.95/month at Gamefly) to play one game at a time with half the time spent with the game in the mail if you want variety, and in the end you own no games. How lame is that?

Most people I know only rent games to try them, and not as a substitute for purchasing them. Renting games is closer to downloading demos which is free for the PC.


Spider-Man 3 was $9.99 for the PC at CC when it came out. How much did console players pay for it?
 
Downloading demos is free for consoles aswell, but I dont really see how you could compare having a full game for as long as you want it to a demo though, if we were talking blockbuster 5 day rentals I would see what you mean but this is a different ball game. And both you and I know that a $10 new release is a rarity.
 
But $29.95 is fairly common for a new PC game on sale. I can't remember the last time I paid more than $35 for a new PC game.
 
PC gaming is getting cheaper to me. Back a few years ago you had to have the latest to play the latest games now you could play games with alittle older cards but not in HD resolutions but its still looks great and plays good. In the pc arena it all depends on how much you are willing to spend to get the best experience. The best pc experience can be better than the console experience if you like more online action and more user community feel. The pc to me is more user friendly and better when your online. Its much more developed and mature than all the consoles combined ;). It just depends on what type of games you like. If your a first person shooter person then the pc is where you want to be. Consoles are ok for fps games but the controls limit your skills along with other games like strategies and stuff. It just depends on the type of games you like. To me the gap is closing on the price from pc and consoles. You could find an old console for cheap cuz it only plays games but when you buy an older computer your still going to pay most likely over hundred dollars since it still can do a lot of stuff. Everyone knows what the computer can do it just depends on your budget and what games you like ;)
 
BladeVenom said:
Renting means you pay $179.4 ($14.95/month at Gamefly) to play one game at a time with half the time spent with the game in the mail if you want variety, and in the end you own no games. How lame is that?

Most people I know only rent games to try them, and not as a substitute for purchasing them. Renting games is closer to downloading demos which is free for the PC.


Spider-Man 3 was $9.99 for the PC at CC when it came out. How much did console players pay for it?
Click to expand...

Oh...joyous yea!...1 for PCs to get CRAPPY game for cheaper :rolleyes:

It's fairly common for a PC game to be $30-40 bucks on sale yes for only the first week. But you know why? They don't sell as well. Why? because most people don't have the computers to run it because it PC gaming costs too much. Period.

To even start breaking even with your budget (Spent $400 on a video card) you HAVE to buy 40 games at $10 saving or 20 games at $20 saving vs a console counterpart. And sorry there really aren't that many great games each year pretty much on either console or PC. Typically if you buy 10-15 a year, chances are at least 4 you're going to be bored of really quickly or hate outright. And you can't easy trade or buy a used PC copy. You have to get that from ebay these days.

You are NOT going to play Gears of War, Lost Planet, Devil May Cry 4, Bioshock, whatever on a PC without doing an overhaul on most rigs. Developers know that and the stores know that. Those are more of a niche audience for gamers (PC). I'm sorry but gaming on a PC is more expensive. I do believe their are greater rewards in it though but at a premium price.
 
I would like to draw a line between gaming in the USA and in Europe, including the UK.
While console games prices fall in the USA, in Europe the prices remain the same for months or years on end. Also where one new console game will cost around $50 in the USA, in Europe it will cost around 70 euros, which is like $80. A price that as I said remains that high for a long time.

Though PC games too are usualy more expensive in Europe, they do eventualy, and relatively fast, fall to US levels. Even so, as a previous poster said, brand new PC games are cheaper than console games anyway.

I used to think that the reason that console games are more expensive in Europe was because of different tax rates and whatever dealing with so many different countries. BUT, that does not explain why PC games are so much cheaper over here.

Even so, can someone tell me why console games are more expensive no matter what? I mean, they have less hardware testing to do, they know the exact hardware they are making the game for, there is also less piracy in consoles than PCs, and if you believe some people, more console games are being sold than PC games. So why do they remain more expensive, even from day one? I suspect the whole piracy is making PC games prices remain high (something that we all used to hear till relatively recently), is total BS.

I own a xbox 360 for about 9 months now and a PSP for about a year, before that I had a DS for 3 months. I own PCs since 1994, and before that, home computers (Amiga, Atari ST etc) since the mid 80s. As far back as I remember, computer games were always cheaper.

Getting a console, for the hardware, it is a bargain, and yes you don't need to upgrade your console every year or so, but even if we rule out other factors and only focus on gaming for what is cheaper, PC or Console gaming, then I strongly believe that PC gaming is cheaper if you buy several games a month, many games a year. Where if you only buy few games every year, it is cheaper to own a console.
 
Console games cost more because there are more people to pay, if you want to put out a console game you have to pay royalties to the company whose system you are making the game for.
 
Being a PC enthusiast in the early and mid 90's gave me the skills to be a very well paid PC and network support professional. If I had played console games, like so many of my college and army friends were doing at that time then, I would have had no marketable skills at all when I left the army. Being a PC gaming enthusiast also helps me to keep my PC skills sharp for the few times I do direct PC work now, leaving me well ahead of my peers when the lower level techs are out of the office and I have to do their work for a while.

So, despite the ten's of thousands of dollars I have spent on PC gaming, I am still more than $500,000 ahead overall.
 
Netrat33 said:
To even start breaking even with your budget (Spent $400 on a video card) you HAVE to buy 40 games at $10 saving or 20 games at $20 saving vs a console counterpart.

You are NOT going to play Gears of War, Lost Planet, Devil May Cry 4, Bioshock, whatever on a PC without doing an overhaul on most rigs.
Click to expand...

Your argument is kind of invalidated by the fact that you don't/won't need a $400 videocard to play those PC titles at 1280x720 (console resolution).

Also, you get only a $10 savings if you buy a PC game when it is first released, but if you wait a month or two you will often get a $20, $30, or even $40 savings over the current console price.
 
rfwinters77 said:
Yeah. That must be why the console gaming forum has more posts in it than PC gaming does.

...

:confused:
Click to expand...

So would you honestly say [H] is primarily console gamers? With forums for video cards and overclocking with over 800,000 posts between them.

The gaming forum here is generally slow it seems. Most people come here to discuss hardware to get more performance out of games, not to discuss the games themselves.
 
you can resell your old vid card when you buy a new card, so really you never spend 400 bucks on a new card or anything... I spent 700 on my last upgrade, resold old parts for 600. I was out 100 bucks.

And if you say we NEED a 400 dollar gfx card then you clearly NEED a 4000 dollar HDTV and you NEED to buy the new model top of the line HDTV every year.

As you can see the argument that gfx cards and PC upgrades are expensive is sort of a moot point...
 
arentol said:
Your argument is kind of invalidated by the fact that you don't/won't need a $400 videocard to play those PC titles at 1280x720 (console resolution).
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

You are going to NEED a very good video card to play those games at the same resolution (720P). And especially if you realize that most likely people are using LCD monitors and lower resolutions tend to be blurry.
 
Denki said:
you can resell your old vid card when you buy a new card, so really you never spend 400 bucks on a new card or anything... I spent 700 on my last upgrade, resold old parts for 600. I was out 100 bucks.

And if you say we NEED a 400 dollar gfx card then you clearly NEED a 4000 dollar HDTV and you NEED to buy the new model top of the line HDTV every year.

As you can see the argument that gfx cards and PC upgrades are expensive is sort of a moot point...
Click to expand...

Uh...your argument is ridiculous. Every time a new game comes out for a console you don't need to upgrade anything :rolleyes:

Crysis comes out and suddenly requirements are steep. Afterwards something else kills it and so on and so on.
 
Why would you need a new model of an HDTV every year? What kind of logic is that? One HDTV is as good as another unless it crapped out on you or its not the standard you want (lacking color or input or something you should've looked up first anyway.)

Graphics cards are almost the same, but if you want to stay top notch you might have to change it every year or 2. But thats only if you want to always be on top with the new technology and keep the frame rate high. Even if reqs are steep you can usually run it if you have a good enough gfx card.

Consoles are expensive though, I don't know which one is more expensive but console are preset so you won't go wrong unless you just happen to choose a doomed console, ie Dreamcast. Or if you just happen to buy something expecting something else then not get it.
 
THe argument that people don't need a 1500 dollar PC for gamin is fair but rather moot.

If you want to goahead and knock the $500 dollars off the price for a good encoding/decoding machine for media files/movies as well as your net surfing and document goodies...I use all of these functions all the time, like a DAILY basis.

well, then we've got a 1000 dollar gaming PC... which of course, I still use my old case, power supply(yeah almost time to upgrade), dvd rw, mouse and kb... all which I've basically had 5 years.

Then of course there's my 5 year old CRT viewsonic, that still kicks ass all over LCD's and has shown no sign of problems or loss of service... my Klipsch 2.1 pro media speakers I've had for 5 years that are still insanely awesome...my Senns cans... um... guys last time I upgraded my PC it seriously was a Mobo, vid card, ram, and processor. Got a couple of new fans too.

My system kicks ass. Honestly, I do feel it's cheaper than console gaming. I don't have a TV.... so for me to get into console gaming it really would cost me significantly more than PC.
 
C2d 230
Crucial ball 2gigs 120
GTS 300
Mobo 120

770$

Does it really take a long time to close the gap?

Modded oblivion looks better than anything I've basically seen out there... specially when you replace all the chicks with hot ones.

You simply can't have hot chicks in your oblivion on consoles.

Hot chicks/= yours.

:)
 
On average ... and I mean average ... console gaming is cheaper.

You can't factor in upgrading your own box because, on AVERAGE, most people don't, they buy new. Most people don't buy every nifty gadget for the console and most people don't manually upgrade, they buy new. Mind you, they don't need to buy the best hardware either but they're still probably clocking about 300-400 extra in hardware costs over a console.

For a guy who can upgrade his own box the numbers probably work out relatively close over the life of a console but that's assuming a heavy level of gameplay and buying many games. Because, it takes lots of games to offset the higher hardware cost.
 
I notice a lot of people think they have to have the latest and greatest to play the new games. You don't need the latest at all to play the newest games. If you want to set the graphics to ultra or high then yea you might need the latest but if you set it to normal or any regular settings then it should be able to run fine on a 500-700 dollar computer. Athlonxp are able to still play all the latest games like company of hereos and others since i have a system here with one and a x850pro and it plays with the settings maxed out. I'm pretty sure athlon xps are really cheap these days. If you think you need the latest then like another guy said if you bought a console then you would probably be looking for a 4000 dollars hdtv. To me the consoles actually cost more than the pc's now in days except for the nintendo wii. Thats the only system i see that is cheaper than the pc lol. The other systems add up a lot in price after upgrades and additions.

I'll tell you this, you aren't getting the best graphics in the world on the ps3 or 360. Many people think they are getting the latest graphics with the consoles like if the pc gets the same graphics but is 1000 dollars more. Pc gaming can cost a lot if you want the highest graphics power in the world :). The graphics on the pc is the flag ship to the whole gaming scene. Without the graphic updates and new videocards on the pc we wouldn't see such high graphic we have now since there would be only competition every 4-6 years. Pc gaming just gives you an option to set whatever graphics setting you want and the lower the graphics the less costly but if you want the top of the line system its going to cost a fortune since its going to do everything else other than gaming also. It just depends on your style of gameplay and what controls you like and how you like to game. The price gap isn't there that much compared to as before.:cool:
 
Conker said:
I notice a lot of people think they have to have the latest and greatest to play the new games. You don't need the latest at all to play the newest games. If you want to set the graphics to ultra or high then yea you might need the latest but if you set it to normal or any regular settings then it should be able to run fine on a 500-700 dollar computer. Athlonxp are able to still play all the latest games like company of hereos and others since i have a system here with one and a x850pro and it plays with the settings maxed out. I'm pretty sure athlon xps are really cheap these days. If you think you need the latest then like another guy said if you bought a console then you would probably be looking for a 4000 dollars hdtv. To me the consoles actually cost more than the pc's now in days except for the nintendo wii. Thats the only system i see that is cheaper than the pc lol. The other systems add up a lot in price after upgrades and additions.

I'll tell you this, you aren't getting the best graphics in the world on the ps3 or 360. Many people think they are getting the latest graphics with the consoles like if the pc gets the same graphics but is 1000 dollars more. Pc gaming can cost a lot if you want the highest graphics power in the world :). The graphics on the pc is the flag ship to the whole gaming scene. Without the graphic updates and new videocards on the pc we wouldn't see such high graphic we have now since there would be only competition every 4-6 years. Pc gaming just gives you an option to set whatever graphics setting you want and the lower the graphics the less costly but if you want the top of the line system its going to cost a fortune since its going to do everything else other than gaming also. It just depends on your style of gameplay and what controls you like and how you like to game. The price gap isn't there that much compared to as before.:cool:
Click to expand...

Furthermore beyond graphics... consider a game like Armed Assualt, where a massive war can be waged and a draw distance as far as your eye can see is visible.... there's no console that could do that. No console could muster the raw processing power of a mean ass multiple core heavily rammed up PC with a little OC'ing these days, I mean can they really compare?

I think it's more of an apples and oranges comparison. I've never thought of my PC as a gaming platform, despite all the bells and whistles I slap on it for gaming. For me it's a home entertainment system.
 
Teknikallysekure said:
Furthermore beyond graphics... consider a game like Armed Assualt, where a massive war can be waged and a draw distance as far as your eye can see is visible.... there's no console that could do that. No console could muster the raw processing power of a mean ass multiple core heavily rammed up PC with a little OC'ing these days, I mean can they really compare?
Click to expand...

Um...what? PS3 and Warhawk dude
 
Netrat33 said:
Um...what? PS3 and Warhawk dude
Click to expand...

I've never played Warhawk, but from all the vids I've seen I wouldn't call it to strong of a comparison.

I mean, sure the graphics are ok and lots of texture maps and characters(the most I've seen in one screen is 15 at a time) but the physics seriously look like something Nintendo 64 could've accomplished.

Wow, plane go farward, plane go backward, plane go up and down....

Have you ever tried flying a helo in Armed assualt? Man, it's a helluva ride.
 
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