You can't buy a decent PC for $200-250, but it depends on how much you're willing to spend on a PC anyway.

If for instance you're willing to spend $300-400 on a non-gaming PC, for the additional cost of a current console (say about $200) you can make it a superior gaming machine. The main problem is you have to fork that money out in one go.

OnLive is good though, especially if you can't fork out the money for a gaming PC. Definatly something to look out for in the future.

I've played with it a bit on my Kindle Fire. But few games in the OnLive library actually have tablet support. Its worth playing with but you have to use it on a PC or Laptop for the full experience.

Naturally there is some lag and I feel it can make first person shooters inparticular kinda frustrating. But its really not a big issue for most of the games. If you haven't yet, I'd suggest downloading it play some demos.

Okay, the console was $400 in 2005 if you bought the Pro. However, that same old piece of hardware will play any Xbox 360 game for the life of the platform. A gaming PC from 2005 though... generally won't run modern high end games well if at all. It would probably make more sense to buy a new machine than do upgrades.

Xbox Live is definitely what puts cost potentially over a gaming PC. But not everyone pays for Xbox Live. Xbox Live also allows you play games online that can't be played anywhere else. People pay a subscription fee to play WoW online. I pay a subscription fee to play Halo, Gears, and other games online.

Ultimately, not everyone is paying what you paid. Especially those that waited for console price cuts or buy Xbox Live Gold subscriptions at discounted prices.

most people i know buy a new pc not later than all 5 years or so. they simply need a pc for the job. sure there are some who only buy one every 10th year but most i know buy new ones after 5 years or even after 3 years. if you do that and put 300 extra in it for gaming per pc purchase, or 200 if you buy one all 3 years, you pay 600 extra in 10 years which isn't more than what you pay for new consoles every 8 years + more expensive games + online subscription (and if it's only 100€ in 5 years for some) or a second console because we all know that the first models are always shit and after some years people upgrade to the slim versions. and you can easily play all games with it. maybe only on medium after 3 years but this is still not worse than console graphics. and i said i paid 250 since 2005 for xbox live so i was talking about the discounted price. if i wouldn't buy it on ebay i would have paid 390€ for xbox live since end of 2005 (6.5 years) and not 250€. and sure, you can play games on xbox you can't play anywhere else, but you can say the same about the pc, you can play there games like shogun 2 which you can't play on a console. it's not about "i can play halo on my xbox", we are only talking about the costs for the different systems. i don't have pc/360/ps3 because i had too much money, i have 3 systems because of the different games and friends using different systems.

and did you compare wow's subscription with xbox live gold and halo? it's not like you would get something for free with gold which you would have to pay for on pc. this ff 11 mmorpg did cost a monthly subscription as well even with xbox live gold. if you have to pay a monthly subscription for a mmo on pc, you would have to pay it on xbox live as well, gold or not.

so as conclusion:

i'm only talking about people with a pc and people who buy a new one all ~4-5 years. people who don't have a pc or only buy a 300€ pc every 15 years aren't the ones i am talking about. but to be honest, i don't know many people who have no pc or only 10 years old pc's which did cost 300€.

I want to get back into PC gaming again... I can't even run Starcraft 2 properly lol. I need to get a job though.

I've been PC gaming my whole life even when Consoles pull away alot of my attention.

I've saved a lot of money not paying a single cent downloading all the free games to my PC so I'm grateful.

LOL

Why is that funny? You should support the people who make the things you like instead of stealing from them. 

I have a hard time getting into PC gaming. I like it, but most of my favourite games never go to PC and when they do they are usually crappy ports.

Hmmmm...how about buy a used game from gamestop for $49.99 -$54.99 then return it within 7 days for full refund. So there, you finished a single player game. Rinse and repeat for a multiplayer game. Think of it as a 7 day free rental with no late fees. You are not stealing now.