Since I bought a gaming PC a while back, I have been met with people saying that they could never get into it because of the sheer price of making the swap. Since becoming a PC gamer however, things could not be more different. I have in fact found it in ways cheaper than console gaming and by writing this article I aim to prove this. In this article i will be looking at things over the perspective of 5 years of gaming and how much it will theoretically cost you. Before people pick holes in this, I have used the model of a dedicated gamer and not a 2 game a year person (COD and FIFA of course).
Now that you have seen a nice pretty info-graphic, I will explain how this is true. So, in the next 5 years, you can sure as hell expect to have to buy a new Xbox and that will set you back at least £300 which in fact is quite a conservative estimate. I have made the assumption that this new Xbox will not break (a’ la Xbox 360 RROD) and will not be succeeded by another generation of console within these 5 years (getting pretty technical now). Of course, in order to play you need a monitor. This monitor linked here is a pretty standard monitor that will get most gamers by and will easily be high enough quality to last the 5 years.
Next up are the games and due to the nature of Consoles, for each and every game you buy, a big chunk of that money goes to the console developer. This usually results in around a £10 price hike on release day games. The average gamer may get say 10 release day games per year and over 5 years this will be an astonishing £2000. This relies on the principle that the gamer is lazy and doesn’t search around for a good deal. Furthermore, I would say the average gamer forks out for around 30 old release / arcade titles per annum. Considering licensing fees, this will come to around £300 per year and £1500 over the course of 5 years.
Accessories are pretty standard for the xbox being controllers, headsets and other bits and bobs you pick up along the way. 4 controllers, 2 headsets and 2 play and charge kits over the course of 5 years will take you to around £200. Xbox Live is also a considerable cost that gamers face today and at £40 a year (again presuming the gamer is lazy and doesn’t search around for good deals), this will amount to £200 over 5 years.
Onto the PC and the most significant cost is easily the PC itself. A standard PC build such as this model here with a GTX 560 instead of the GTX 550ti costs around £800 and can run games such as Battlefield 3 with ease (without anti-aliasing provided) and will last you easily 5 years.
Onto the games side of things, without those pesky licensing fees, you will only need to pay around £30 for the average release day title with amounts to £1500 over 5 years taking the model stated from the previous example. Furthermore, with services such as Steam, older games will also be much cheaper than Xbox counterparts and not considering the AMAZING deals that are on steam, I would say that 30 older games would set you back around £200 per year. This amounts to £1000 over 5 years. Accessories may be a bit more expensive for the PC but if you buy smart, they will easily last you 5 years. £300 would easily be a justified amount for keyboards, mice and headsets for 5 years of gaming.
So, there you go, proof beyond reasonable doubt that PC gaming is cheaper than sticking with your console (and looks much nicer too).
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“Proof beyond reasonable doubt” gimme a break Phil. Monitor to play console? ummm no most people have TV’s already. I understand what youre trying to get at but dont agree one bit buddy.
It’s very open to debate . The pc isnt even less dominated by such popular titles .
Console got a wide range of variety of titles , it’s your own damn fault if all you can think of are cod and fifa . Do you see as many console players coming in as condescending as the pc crowd and claiming all you guys play anyway are starcraft , counterstrike and mmos ? Not really , so what’s with that attitude ?
I did not say that at all. What I said was in my argument talking about why it is cheaper to have a PC in the long term than a console that it would not be a solid model for some people as (predominantly on console) people will tend to stick to certain games which are of course COD and FIFA and I can produce a tonne of data to back me up there. I am speaking of a gamer much like myself who enjoys a variety of games and will buy a lot of games each year. This type of gamer is what I used in my article. I hope this cleared it up.
i still dont agree lol, dont see the tide changing anytime soon. Too many people out there still have the perception as you say its expensive and a daunting task to build there own or to even know what to get what not to get etc. Honestly the community factor on xbox is the only reason i still play console and its ease of use. Gamers like ourselves though know where to get bargains and forage for hidden gems all the time. Its the casual gamers that fall trap to the PC is too expensive and the stereotype of having to upgrade equipment every 6 months to a year etc.
Got to add Phil, great thought provoking article and im sure on here and on other sites like N4G will be commented on galore.
Interesting article. I think there will be a swing back toward PC gaming, but it won’t be price that pushes it back. The one thing you are missing here is the cost of upgrading the PC. The big advantage that PC gaming has over console gaming is the hardware continually improves, rather than having a 5 or 10 year cycle. PC gaming developers consistently have better hardware to design around. So, if you want to play those 10 new games every year, you will probably need to shell out $200 or so for a GPU at least twice during your 5 years.
Things aren’t going to get much more demanding than BF3 in the next 2 or 3 years I would say. A build like the one I cited will last you for the whole period in my opinion and will not need to be upgraded unless you really want to be at the forefront of technology.
Yes and no , cheaper in the long run , but still expensive upfront .
You also didnt even need to pick a 360 and cheaply use an rather large extra fee for the online . At least for the purpose of the comparison , not when there are consoles without such fee .
And it’s dishonest to pretend the regular joe doesnt have a tv and would buy a monitor for the console .
You randomly add a cost for console accessories , without detailling what it even is .
Last i checked all you need as a start is the pad .
That’s already 600£ added to the console cost that feels arbitrary and with little basis
I went from the view point that you were starting off with a blank canvas in this article and you were just going to get into gaming. However unrealistic that is, that is how I approached it. As for the other items stated, they are necessary to enjoy the whole experience and I want the PC and XBox experience to be as close as possible when I compare them to each other in terms of pricing. That means you will need xbox live, a couple of headsets (which will or course break during that time) and multiple gamepads.
I wouldn’t call it proof nor do I really agree with the article but it is one way to look at it non the less.
Exactly what I aimed for. It is a model that will fit some gamers and wont others.
I agree with you that PC gaming isn’t as expensive as everyone says it is, but I’d probably gone about explaining it in a little different way. I also agree with DTA, but only about the tides not changing soon. Most people do already have a tv to play consoles on, but most people also have a computer too. You can easily put into a computer the amount of money that a console cost and have a pretty nice setup. Or even better if you are indeed in the market for a new computer (which everyone buys new computers eventually) then but a little bit extra money into it to get a nice setup. If you take out the initial cost of what you would spend on a computer for daily life (which would have been bought even if you don’t game) and only added the extra money to make it a gaming PC, then it drives the price down by quite a bit.
At last an article that shows that console gaming is way more expensive than PC gaming.
I use steam and have lots of bargain basement games that were on a sale. £3.99 for each of the following, Alien vs Predator, Hard Reset, Far Cry 1 & 2, SW:KOTOR, Alien Swarm, DEUS EX 1 & 2. Crysis and the Alien Breed trilogy was £7.99. Full priced games are Fallout: New Vegas and TES:Skyrim which cost £29.99 and £34.99 respectfully. Way cheaper than Console games.
The argument about cost of a PC for me is one that doesn’t equate as I would use my PC for other things anyway. So the additional cost of having slightly better CPU and GPU is certainly not as expensive as a console alone.
The only problem you have is compatibility with hardware and software. The advantages are mods and patches, backward compatibility, better CPU and GPU, higher resolution, MMORPG’s, more extensive multiplayer.
I have an Xbox 360 but hardly use it now. I will only buy a game that is Xbox exclusive.
For me it’s PC gaming everytime.
Also how did I not mention:
Team Fortress 2. Which is free to own and play.
That alone is enough to buy a PC.
I like the article Phil. Although I’ll give my half penny worth and say yes if I had lots of money I’d get a gaming PC. However I don’t so I can’t afford the upfront costs. Most of the PC gamers I have knew where when I was a kid so most of the kids I knew had their PC’s bought for them. None of my friends now can afford to buy a PC now we all have our xbox’s
.
Also £300 pounds for a new console? Maybe when they’re first released but my xbox was £120 brand new.
PC Gaming is the way to go!
I know PCs can be expensive for the initial outlay and you could use a playstation, but lets face it, consoles are just boring. You sit like a vegetable just straining your eyes to the TV up on the wall.
Get in front of a PC and get some gaming done! (For cheaper too!)
Where the hell is your TV? Mine is at a comfortable height.
my tv is on the ceiling, doesnt strain my eyes but christ my neck hurts like hell.
i thought this was a good article and people are just poking holes in it, and i was wondering how much it would cost to build your own custom computer? like one that can run games like BF3 or whatever new games come out in the next 2-3 years?
Please reply ASAP i need this to help me pursuade my parents haha
Well… I wrote this article quite badly and yes there are a lot of loopholes and yes I said stupid things in the comments but… PC gaming once you get over the initial purchase is cheaper in terms of games. But upfront maybe not. In the end all that matters is that you have a tonne of fun and the only way you are gonna find out if PC gaming is more fun that console gaming is if you try it. Hope this helps.
I showed this too my parents, they put down a deposit! thanks man you were a great help. i just think they needed proof that people actually enjoy it and think it is superior, like i told them, and yes i have tried it and i thought it was awesome!