While I disagree with your figures yet you did hit the nail on the head. ($2000 pc will be a lot more powerful than a $350 console) While you get a bargin on console hardware at first in the long run you end up paying more though software.

For someone who buys a lot of games PC gaming is still cheaper than consoles especially when you including all the mods you get to extend gameplay.

Here in the US PC/Wii games are generally $50 and ps3/360 games are $60. In addition to this the prices of PC games fall far faster than those of console games. Bioshock on PC is now only $30, but it's still $60 on the 360.

PC gaming ftw!

for $500 you can buy a PC that runs Crysis on High Settings, and COD4 on Maxed Settings.

You have no right to talk as if you have the proper knowledge to make a decent statement. Gaming on PC is cheaper than PS3/360.

They are higher priced because of the licensing fee to Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft and hawkeye, your friend probably figured you would be buying your computer prebuilt (though Dell or HP) and thus 800 wouldn't get you that great of a computer. build it yourself and you can get a great computer for a good price.

If you find good deals or buy used games, you can find both PC and console games for fairly cheap. For example, Mass Effect is now $20 at Gamefly.com with free shipping. It's used, but I hear that their games come in good condition.

shio, please build me a computer that can play Crysis on high for $500. And don't forget an operating system because a computer is pretty useless without one.

He is wrong... UT3 is comparable with CoD4 and a $500 can run UT3 on the highest settings in a playable framerate @ 1920*1200

And Crysis on 1024*768 on High

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-graphic-game,1907.html

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.

Oh no, not the damn pc cost vs console cost thing again. Perhaps they should just go ahead and put those damn stupid charts with Crysis running on a $200 machine the home page., because I have a feeling someone is going to bust them out. PC games are cheaper because they dont sell as much.

here were i live their the same price as wii games

Perhaps because PC games are the easiest to pirate, so they need to offer a more attractive price to keep the players on the right side of their wallets.