So, you think PC gaming is too expensive? Why? Sure, original costs may be slightly higher than a console, or slightly lower if it doesn't perform quite as well. But, there are other costs you don't seem to think about.
Let's take the 360, as it's the best value for money. By far.
What about that crappy £100 PC sitting in the corner which has the majority of components you need? The one that you bought as well as your 360? So what's the cost of the 360?
Xbox 360 Arcade Console: £130. You get the bare minimum. It's essentially for those who can't access the internet to download other crap for their games. Most people can and, when the crap is free why not? Let's take another look.
Xbox 360 Premium 20GB. Same price. Excellent, right? Wrong. If you actually download content for more than 5 games you're going to run out of space very fast.
Xbox 360 Premium with 60GB HDD space. Perfect. Sort of. It gives you plenty of space. What else do we want? To play online, of course. For every 12 months it's going to cost us £35.
So, this "upgrade" after 5 years argument against the PC. Where are we with consoles?
Xbox 360:
- Redundant after 6 (or less) more years. Developers aren't going to be interested by the next gen.
- £165 initial cost.
- £35 yearly cost.
- £10 (likely) repair cost.
For a good 6 years (if you purchase now) it's going to come up to a massive £385. Let's see what the PC will cost us for each year of gameplay. The build cost comes into it later. So let's give the 360 a fair chance...
Xbox 360: £220
PC
- Cost to play online: Free (even on LIVE games).
- Cost per game £10-£15 less than the average 360 game.
- Massive back catalogue which will never be unplayable, but actually becomes free.
So the average number of games bought by a 350 owner a year is 3.5. Say the average user gets one DLC download (I have no evidence here, but a lot of people have the Halo and CoD4 map packs, as well as content from other games) that's an extra £5 a year. That makes the cost of running a PC for the next 6 years...hmm... -£460. Yes, NEGATIVE £460. Already the original argument starts to sound fishy.
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The base cost of buying a PC is more, you say. Ok, let's work that out. For the first year of playing a 360 game it's £200.
You're on the internet. There's no easy way to browse the web than with a PC, right?
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- Case
- PSU
- Monitor
- Speakers
- Operating System
- DVD drive
- RAM
If this was a personal computer (for a large percentage of people, it is) this would save you a lot. So, the options are: upgrade and get a damn good PC, or buy a whole new PC, which you will have to upgrade. But one component every two years (instead of buying Live, plus the money you save on games) can futureproof it for the next generation. That's around the same spec of a 360, but after 4 years it will be ready for the next generation. So, what have you saved if you upgrade over the next 6 years?
PC costs: £340
360 costs: £375
You can do the math, right?
If not: you save £35. Every two years you spend £70. A better PSU should be bought with the original build, but this was a quicky. An extra £10-15 on the original build is a fantastic investment.
Here's the mock-up:
Please, don't buy this. I doubt you would, but I haven't looked into all components properly. If you really want to buy a gaming PC, though. I'm happy to help. The bottom line is: For the same cost of an Xbox 360 for 6 years, you can have a PC which is ready for the next generation. What would I recommend? Spend your money on a Blu-Ray drive and 30" monitor that year.
Starting from scratch? It can be done, but I admit, I need Quickspark and/or Col to help me out there...
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