The Cost - PC vs Console Gaming?

um7y1h83ge06nx

I was turning this over in my mind today, trying to figure out if PC gaming is or isn't expensive relative to consoles.

As the next iteration of Xbox and Playstation looms I'm wondering whether to stick with the consoles or go PC.

So how expensive can PC gaming be and how does it compare to the cost of console gaming?

I'm not looking to troll here or start fanboy wars just a genuine debate.

Here what my ignorant starting views are:

* PCs need to be upgraded - my 360 bought in Dec 2005 doesn't. CPU socket changes can severely limit or prevent upgrades. A 2005 PC may (or may not?) struggle to play something like Far Cry 3 while the Xbox can. A high performing PC would probably blow the Xbox/PS3 out of the water though.

* PC games are far cheaper, even free if you're naughty

* PCs can obviously do more than games but then again I have a middle of the road laptop already

* High end PCs can blow the consoles away when it comes to performance.

* Consoles are a little more relaxed to play i.e. drop yourself on the couch with a wireless controller.

* It's a bit of craic putting together a PC (I've done one for myself and a few for friends)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

any 2005 pc provided it wasn't a lemon to begin with would be able to play any game a console could at equivelant quality/resolution.

Retr0gamer

Putting together a PC with moderate specs doesn't cost that much and will totally outpace current consoles on power.

What you spend on the PC you'll make back on the price of games as well as all the free mods out there. Also, free online play.

Sarky

Spent €600 on a very nice PC recently. Most of the games I buy are less than €40, and far prettier than the same €60 game on any console.

If PC doesn't beat consoles in the long term, it certainly balances out.

Mr Blobby

Well a few weeks ago I did a little test to see which was more expensive and at least for me It was a lot more expensive to own a Xbox.

I basically added up the price of my Pc + Games against Xbox + Games + Live

I added the total over a 3 year period since that's when most people would consider a upgrade.

I think I saved around €250 over the 3 Years. The main difference was the price of the games.


But again this is all down to how many games you buy a year.

Jambo221

I'm very curious to see people's perceptions on this too. There are so many factors to consider, electricity usage, price of games, etc.

I've always thought PC gaming to be much cheaper considering the amount of free games there are out there.

Price isn't the only thing though, in house shares consoles are much safer to leave out in the open than PCs. After growing up having to share a PC with the rest of the family, I definitely wouldn't do it again :P In that sense, the cost of gaming can be shared among a few people, whereas with PC gaming, the cost is usually on an individual.

um7y1h83ge06nx

blobby360 wrote: »

Well a few weeks ago I did a little test to see which was more expensive and at least for me It was a lot more expensive to own a Xbox.

I basically added up the price of my Pc + Games against Xbox + Games + Live

I added the total over a 3 year period since that's when most people would consider a upgrade.

I think I saved around €250 over the 3 Years. The main difference was the price of the games.


But again this is all down to how many games you buy a year.

Yeah, I have been reading a few different articles on it and the number of games you buy a year appears to be one of the main considerations, so PCs seem to be better for heavy gamers.

Magill

Well, i guess, as the xbox fanboys like to say... you get what you pay for really. Overall, when you take into consideration the price of games (If you buy smart, use the sales) multi-functional use etc then i would say they are probably equal in terms of cost. Most console players i know have either a laptop or a standard PC.... which im SURE they also upgrade every few years anyway. Not to mention, very few console owners have had one console last an entire generation.

It also depends on what type of gamer you are, and what you enjoy playing... most people enjoy playing games with their mates, so if their mates have an xbox.. it makes sense that they get one too.

Overall tho... i would say that PC gaming is the "Best" option for the more dedicated gamer. You have a wider selection of games, better exclusives (By far...), far better controls, better graphics and performance and in general its a much better experience when playing online imo... which is free ofc.

CrazyRabbit

PC's:

Cheaper games (just look at the Steam sales at the moment!)
Can periodically upgrade Graphics Card at less cost than a new console.
Muti-use...Internet browsing.
Generally better controller options...can use keyboard + mouse, gamepad, joystick. Most console games work only with gamepad.
Much better graphics/sound.
Can use many powerful applications, not just games.
Bigger selection of games still (due to back catalogue)...can still play 15 year old games on them.
Tons of free games.


Consoles:
Convenient/smaller & more portable.
More user-friendly. Requires no technical knowledge/ability.
Cheaper than a PC normally.

marco_polo

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

any 2005 pc provided it wasn't a lemon to begin with would be able to play any game a console could at equivelant quality/resolution.

Not so sure about that, the Athlon X2 3800+ was a $350 CPU back in 2005, and barely able for Far Cry 2 four years later.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4650-agp,2383-6.html

steve_r

I used to (casually) use my laptop as my only gaming machine, but nearly a year ago after getting sick of bugs/installation problems etc I moved to a PS3.

Cost wise I've spent a lot more and I'm not quite sure I got value for money.

For me, a laptop is pretty much a sunk cost, given that I want to be online, music, movies etc on the go. Wheras a console is just a machine for gaming. I know you can use it as a media player, but I can hook my laptop up to my TV for that so it's not much benifit for me.

I think the added use you would get from a gaming PC justifies the increased price. On the other hand I am willing to pay extra (but not much!) for console games, just becuase I know I won't have to worry about bugs/crashing etc. That might not be a financial cost, but the lost time and fustration is a big factor for me.

gizmo

marco_polo wrote: »

Not so sure about that, the Athlon X2 3800+ was a $350 CPU back in 2005, and barely able for Far Cry 2 four years later.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4650-agp,2383-6.html

It's probably worth bearing in mind that "equivalent" preformance with a console is 30fps running at 720p. If someone had bought a Core2Duo E6600 back around 2006 which was the CPU to get, then with a Geforce 280 (admittedly a later card) they'd have hit ~40fps at 1680x1050 with medium detail. With an appropriate card from the time I think a console-like experience could have been maintained till now in the majority of cases.

That being said, that's all well and good now, however I don't expect a relatively cheap PC bought recently to last very long following the introduction of the next generation of consoles. A new machine built around the next-gen Haswell chips from Intel or even current gen chips from the i7 side of the family should make it awhile though.

K.O.Kiki

Sarky wrote: »

Spent €600 on a very nice PC recently. Most of the games I buy are less than €40, and far prettier than the same €60 game on any console.

If PC doesn't beat consoles in the long term, it certainly balances out.

I haven't bought a new console game for more than €40 in the past 4-5 years. :rolleyes:

Retr0gamer

Good point about the new consoles incoming. Probably best to hold off getting a PC since you will be upgrading to play new games when they are released.

Genghiz Cohen

A nice little Trinity build I had in my cart from God-knows-when

Item|Price
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.15
Toshiba DT01ACA Series 500GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€49.43
ASRock FM2A75 Pro4, FM2, ATX|€73.38
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€34.00
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9|€34.19
Logitech Wireless Desktop MK260|€22.38
Rechner - Zusammenbau|€20.00
AMD A10 5800K Black Edition mit AMD Radeon HD 7660D Grafikeinheit, Box, FM2|€113.71
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€408.23

Should play most of todays games on high settings at 1080p. Plus it'll arrive built.

Kiith

Considering how long it takes games to really utilise a new consoles power, i'd be fairly confident of even mid range pc's keeping up with the next gen consoles, at least for a while. I could be completely wrong though.

marco_polo

Just to give the OP a rough idea of PC gaming cost I'd say I spend about a €900 on my PC just over three years ago (PC,monitor,decent KB+Mouse, speakers etc), the only additions I have made since then is a 64GB SSD for about €80, and just this week ordered a HD7850 for €200 which should hopefully be at home waiting for me later. You could probably build the equivalent for about €600 right now.

I didn't strictly have to upgrade the GPU (AMD HD4870) as it was still playing most games at high settings (No problems recently playing games like Crysis 2, Deus Ex HR, MP3 Metro 2033 at fairly high detail levels) and would have done for another year or so if I really needed. I would expect to get at least another 2-3 years out of the new card.

Had I left it as is I would have gotten four years of gaming for €150 per year of hardware costs, which isn't bad for what is my preferred gaming experience.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Good point about the new consoles incoming. Probably best to hold off getting a PC since you will be upgrading to play new games when they are released.

The Xbox 360 was an immensely powerful machine at the time of its launch, but I'm not sure that the gap between the next generation and the average gaming PC will be as large on day one this time around? We shall see when they get announced I suppose.

ShadowHearth

i could write a lot about this issue, but i am just tired of explaining it. PC gaming can be bigger initial investment ( not even that big these days ), but once you dipped your toe its happy sailing.

just few points:

*When you buy a PC gaming, you buy a PC, Best media centre out there. for example: i am writing this post on boards, watching a movie, playing EVE online. If not misses i would not even have TV in my house.

*Entry/mid range PC Droped in price a lot. Once you got a base, then every single item in it can be separately changed. If you could not splash out as much as you wanted at start, you will always be able to add/change it any second you want. its not like you will have to completely swap a whole system.

*Game prices, oh boy, its a blessing and a curse... For example:
dark souls PC version -13eu ( released in august )
X-com enemy unknown - 22eu ( released october )
Sleeping dogs -16eu ( released august )
Dishonored -14eu ( released october )
thats all newish this season games, i am not even talking about older games! stuff like batman arkham city goty can be picked up for 7eu on sales. and trust me, there are more sales these days then you can ever afford.

*I know Pc gaming looks like expensive purchase, but how many people are still on same console that they got on release? ( 60gb ps3 and 20gb xbox 360 ). I wont even say about initial price of it back then. A good few of those consoles went in flames, true. though how many people had to change them ( or wanted ), because new ones were "slim", new looking, had bigger Hdds? though still with same processing power like before. Now i know some proper fanboy will jump in and go: " YOU SCUMBAG! THATS LIES! I am still on my 20GB XBOX and it still works and its awesome, you are wrong!!!". Yes, some people still have those, for example - ME. i still got 60gb ps3 ( hooked up and being used now and then ) and got xbox 360 20gb in a box, still working. And guess what? i got a 250gb slim one hooked up to TV too. I needed bigger hdd and hdmi port, so i could not upgrade old xbox. i needed new console. ( i am lucky to still got those 2 working because i rarely use them ), MAJORITY of people will have bought more then 1 xbox/ps3 in consoles lifespam if they started at beggining. Its not an attack at Console gamer, its just something majority of people just write off or dont notice when looking in to costs.
Yeah yeah, i know you bough xbox last year and it costed to you only once, but new one coming out next year or year after and you will buy that new one again, it will be an initial release console and chances are you will be buying the updated version later on. It does not mean that console is a bad thing or devils minion, it just costs should be looked at fairly.

*A lovely awesome myth - you got to update your PC ever 2 weeks, if you push it you can get away with 3 weeks, but got to be very carefull or BAM - Herpes. My old pc ( still own it ) was bought 6 years ago now from dell ( i was stupid allright! ), even so i played 5 years with it all i needed to do is pop new GPU and it is still play almost any game high/maxed out settings today. The only reason i got a totally new PC, because i could not upgrade prebuilt system and that i am PC nerd all right? i dont spend 4eu on a pint in pub, but i spend 500eu on new GPU! :pac:
okay, what am i trying to say: if you build normal decent pc ( not expensive i may add, but smart pc ), you wont need to upgrade for ages. you might upgrade it, when you get upgrade bug, which most pc gamers suffer from.

*steam. google it if you dont know.


*no monopoly on digital distribution. buy from anyone you want.

Antar Bolaeisk

My PC expenditure over the last six years.

2006: Built new PC, approximately €1000 which also included an OS, screen and 7.1 surround sound speakers.

2008: New graphics card, approximately €150

2011: New SSD, approximately €150 (Best upgrade, ever)

2012: New motherboard, ram, processor and heatsink, approximately €500 (Note: I also bought a new screen this year for €350 so it can be included here but it's really by merit of the fact that I use my PC for everything rather than just gaming that I bought it and it's just happy co-incidence that it now allows me to game on a much bigger screen ).

An extra €100/per year could also be added on for random peripherals.

In that time my Steam library increased to roughly 350 games. I rarely, if ever spend more than €20 on a game and for the most part it's generally sales that I pick stuff up. If we take an average of €15/game (though the reality is probably a little less) that gives me a cost of €875/year (actually, that's a scary figure when put like that, I hope I'm not spending that much per year ).

Actually, the whole lot is a lot of money to spend when laid out like that! I've just scared myself a little.

Note: I don't use my computer solely for gaming, I do a lot of work from it also.


Something to factor in to the console equation, anyone who owns a console will probably also need to get or own a computer/laptop/tablet which is another couple of hundred euro onto the cost.

ShadowHearth

i forgot to add:

your steam library and all games will fallow you all the time. no matter how many PCs you upgraded or replaced. they will all work no matter what generation it was. funny enough there is no such thing as generations on PC its like one long generation. I still got stuff like fallout 2 on my PC, which i played on my VERY first PC.

yimrsg

With the next generation of consoles around the corner it's very economical to be a console gamer. Even AAA releases which normally have RRP of €60 and above are often around €40 on release day. Console games are initially more expensive but after 2/3 months after release they're isn't so much of a difference between them also the pre-owned market is larger than pc games so there is that advantage financially. Very recently you could get a 250gb xbox 360 with 2 AAA games for under €200, which is fantastic value. I'm sure there are similar bargains to be had when buying a ps3. Even though I paid over €400 for my 360 on release I've gotten value for money with it, it's very easy to get value for money with a console. It's a fair bit harder to get the same value for money and convenience in pc gaming.

I've recently bought a laptop and there are so many little things that you need to add (mouse & mat, headphones, microphone) on to game whereas on a console it was just plug and play. Buying/upgrading a pc/laptop is a much larger outlay than a console and requires a bit of research and thought behind each purchase/upgrade. You do get plenty of advantages over consoles but you're paying for those. Whether those advantages are worth the extra outlay is down to each individual.

PogMoThoin

For console the price of the TV should be factored in.

Washington Irving

yimrsg wrote: »

With the next generation of consoles around the corner it's very economical to be a console gamer. Even AAA releases which normally have RRP of €60 and above are often around €40 on release day. Console games are initially more expensive but after 2/3 months after release they're isn't so much of a difference between them also the pre-owned market is larger than pc games so there is that advantage financially. Very recently you could get a 250gb xbox 360 with 2 AAA games for under €200, which is fantastic value. I'm sure there are similar bargains to be had when buying a ps3. Even though I paid over €400 for my 360 on release I've gotten value for money with it, it's very easy to get value for money with a console. It's a fair bit harder to get the same value for money and convenience in pc gaming.

Just on the price of games. You say AAA releases are about €40 on console (personally, I haven't seen any that cheap). On PC, they are also around €40 at release but many of the them cost less than half that a month or two after release. Take Dishonored for example, released last month and last week was available on PC for €14. ShadowHearth has given more examples above.

The emboldened part simply isn't true. It's very easy to make back the initially higher price of a PC as you have access to films, music, TV, internet, far greater value in cost of games and far greater range of games to choose from

gizmo

Kiith wrote: »

Considering how long it takes games to really utilise a new consoles power, i'd be fairly confident of even mid range pc's keeping up with the next gen consoles, at least for a while. I could be completely wrong though.

You'd be surprised at the recommended specs for the next gen engines.

ShadowHearth

gizmo wrote: »

You'd be surprised at the recommended specs for the next gen engines.

Eh? :P:confused::P:P

NTMK

yimrsg wrote: »

With the next generation of consoles around the corner it's very economical to be a console gamer. Even AAA releases which normally have RRP of €60 and above are often around €40 on release day.

I havent seen a single release this year on PS3/360 for €40 if anything they've edged closer to RRP if anything

Console games are initially more expensive but after 2/3 months after release they're isn't so much of a difference between them also the pre-owned market is larger than pc games so there is that advantage financially.

Steam sales mean you can 2/3 month old games for less than €20 also you have a multitude of sites selling pc games a lot less than retail

Very recently you could get a 250gb xbox 360 with 2 AAA games for under €200, which is fantastic value. I'm sure there are similar bargains to be had when buying a ps3. Even though I paid over €400 for my 360 on release I've gotten value for money with it, it's very easy to get value for money with a console. It's a fair bit harder to get the same value for money and convenience in pc gaming.

Good value @ 200 and you do get value for money from consoles but to say that its harder to get the same from a PC is laughable.
every pc is capable of being a far better Media center than the consoles, you also get free online play (€30-40 a year on 360), a decent internet browser, larger range of top quality indie games, Modding commuinities, F2P games and a whole host of things the consoles cant do.

Kiith

gizmo wrote: »

You'd be surprised at the recommended specs for the next gen engines.

Hopefully. The last thing we need is the next gen consoles being underpowered, and having the pc tech being massively ahead of the game again. I'd be delighted if the new consoles were massive improvements from a technical point of view.

Duggy747

PC all the way for me, best media center you can have tweaked to your own settings with XBMC managing my media and providing streams and another jukebox-like software for managing all my old games from Atari to PS2.

Built my machine for around €700 and have it hooked up to the TV, plays games on High settings comfortably, can change between gaming / watching media / browsing the web / running software / etc with no problem.

Plus you can pick up a massive back catalogue of games on the cheap through the likes of Gog, Steam, etc.

sarumite

Dash Teeny Mice wrote: »

* PC games are far cheaper, even free if you're naughty

*

Everything can be free if you're naughty.

degrassinoel

Steam sales!
PC master race is more expensive.

Washington Irving

degrassinoel wrote: »

Steam sales!
PC master race is more expensive.

/thread