Why are console games so much more expensive than PC games?

[BenKenobi88]

Hawkeye said:

sc94597 said:

Hawkeye said:
Which would you prefer-
A. $2000 console with $40 games
B. $350 console with $60 games
there is your answer. PC gamers pay through the nose for hardware but better control and graphics and customization and get decent prices on software. Console gamers get much cheaper hardware but slightly more expensive software.

Are you delutional? My $700 pc could play any game on high-very high settings at 720p, and most games I could play even higher. You could probably build a pc for $500 that could play any game on the mariket, and play them with better graphics than the hd consoles.

 

 

I asked my friend before "if I bought an $800 PC, would it be able to play CoD4 so I could play it with you guys at the LAN party?" and he said "it would run, but it wouldn't run on any setting worth playing". He may be wrong, I have no idea as I have a crappy laptop, but my impression has been that a very expensive PC is needed to run modern PC games like Crysis and CoD4.

Hah.

Let's go through a list of prices when comparing PC to 360:

PC:
-- $800 PC (that's how much mine cost including a 22" widescreen monitor), it plays COD4 on max settings, Crysis with medium to high settings, TF2 fully maxed, etc.
-- Free internet usage and gaming.
-- Games typically start at $50.

Run that for 2 years, with, let's say, a $100 upgrade for something along the line, a hard drive, video card, whatever.  I just bought a Radeon 3850 for $90, and that's pretty much my only upgrading in a while.  Let's say you buy 12 games a year, once a month.

Add that up, that's $2100 in 2 years.

360:

--$350 console, no TV, you can factor that price separately if you wish, though to be fair we should throw in the same $170 monitor I factored into the PC deal.
--$50 a year for Xbox Live, right?
--Games typically start at $60.

Add that up, it's $1890 for 2 years, without the monitor.  Throw in the monitor, or similarly priced TV, that's $2060.  Throw in another controller, because who the hell owns a console with only one controller?   You're now up to $2100, or $2180 if you buy 2 more controllers.

I was a little modest with both systems.  You can overspend on a PC, get things you don't need, just as you can do with a console.  You can buy used games on a console, but PC games drop in price REALLY fast so they're pretty much equal there.

Please check your assumptions before you type, and educate your stupid friend.