Poll: What is your Primary Game Platform? (63% say PC, apparently, huh, who knew.)

[Joccaren]

PC. I don't have the money for console gaming.

What? If you take in the amount of paying monthly for Xbox live, then I might understand that, but that's really a first I've heard of PC gaming being more cost effective than console.

Its not that uncommon. It is merely a myth that PC gaming on the whole is more expensive than console gaming. High End PC gaming can be, but a lot of it also depends on how many games you buy, and just how good your rig is.

I'm running a 6 year old 9800GTX graphics card, 12Gb RAM, a P8P67 Motherboard, Some crappy H60 cooling and an i7 2600k. The latter 4 parts came with my most recent upgrade. It cost me a total of $350. This rig will run Skyrim max settings, with 3 strikes back on all fade distances, with about 25 FPS, and if I take shadows down to high instead of ultra with about 45 FPS. I run BF3 on a mix of Ultra, High and Medium settings with about 40 FPS, and the Original Crysis I run maximum settings at 60 or more FPS.

Its a reasonably high end PC. Not extreme high end in processor and motherboard, my HDD is only a SATA 2, and the graphics card is old too. However, I am getting an upgrade of 2 560Tis for a further $500. That is where the major expense for me comes in. The graphics cards I'm going to use.

That ends up taking my money spent on the current PC build to about $800, whereas buying a new console on release day here would have been about $350. Games for consoles, however, are $10 more expensive than PC games, at least around here and totally excluding Steam Sales. I have bought more than 50 games for my old PC in its lifetime, which has been the same as the current console generation, and I got it for a similar cost to what I got my new rig for. Those more than 50 games, however, would have been $10 more expensive per game to buy for any console I would have bought. 50*10=$500. Simply by buying a lot of games, a console becomes more expensive than a PC. This is where PC gaming becomes cheaper than console gaming - when the person buys a lot of games.

There is then also the fact that both a new console and my pretty reasonable computer upgrade cost the same amount (excluding the Graphics cards I'm buying extra), but I get a far better quality of game, and straight from the first game I have spent $10 less.

There in lies one way that consoles are more expensive than PCs. There are other cases in which it can be, and good bargain hunters can get a good PC for very little money, with a little tech know-how.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

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Ahh, makes sense. I've noticed that Steam games are only 50 bucks generally, and I'm also much more of a short term thinker when it comes to money (still haven't shelled out for the 60$ monthly XBL and am still doing 10$ a month).

Also never thought about the fact that a TV is a pretty large expense.

 

[klasbo]

I play almost exclusively FPS and RTS games, both of which are inarguably better interfaced with a mouse and keyboard. I also have a dual analog controller for those rare occurrences.

PC: It does everything a console does, and more, and faster, and you already have one anyway.

 

[GeorgW]

All of them? (excluding wii and mobile of course) Don't make me choose!
I guess PS3 at the moment given that it's the most recent, but I do play pretty equally on my 360, PS3 and PC.
And OP, why are you surprised at the results, this community is very vocally and adamantly the PC master race type crowd.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

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Ahh, makes sense. I've noticed that Steam games are only 50 bucks generally, and I'm also much more of a short term thinker when it comes to money (still haven't shelled out for the 60$ monthly XBL and am still doing 10$ a month).

Also never thought about the fact that a TV is a pretty large expense.

Well not many people think about in terms of total expenses just the general set up costs. It doesn't make PC gaming better or cheaper in all cases but more avid gamers who do buy a lot of games(more so new but then there are steam sales too) it is a bit cheaper to be on PC in such cases.

I thought it was a given that most people here are PC gamers.

It is actually a lot closer to 50/50 given a survey done here a few years ago but the shift at the moment towards PC gaming is understandable until the next gen comes.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

All of them? (excluding wii and mobile of course) Don't make me choose!
I guess PS3 at the moment given that it's the most recent, but I do play pretty equally on my 360, PS3 and PC.
And OP, why are you surprised at the results, this community is very vocally and adamantly the PC master race type crowd.

See my above post as this is generally a 50/50 site that survey which I forgot to mention was something like 52% PC and 48% consoles.

 

[GeorgW]

All of them? (excluding wii and mobile of course) Don't make me choose!
I guess PS3 at the moment given that it's the most recent, but I do play pretty equally on my 360, PS3 and PC.
And OP, why are you surprised at the results, this community is very vocally and adamantly the PC master race type crowd.

See my above post as this is generally a 50/50 site that survey which I forgot to mention was something like 52% PC and 48% consoles.

But that was a while ago, I think it's a much bigger divide now.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

All of them? (excluding wii and mobile of course) Don't make me choose!
I guess PS3 at the moment given that it's the most recent, but I do play pretty equally on my 360, PS3 and PC.
And OP, why are you surprised at the results, this community is very vocally and adamantly the PC master race type crowd.

See my above post as this is generally a 50/50 site that survey which I forgot to mention was something like 52% PC and 48% consoles.

But that was a while ago, I think it's a much bigger divide now.

Which is why I said to see the above post as it is normal to see a shift like this near the end of a console gen as PC becomes much more cost effect in short term start up costs in relation to its power. While consoles have fixed hardware quality and not so much of a fall in price(well usually). It will be more console gamers when next gen comes out, then equal and back to here again near the end. So far most of the gens after the "Golden Age" of PC gaming tend to be like that. Just to add there are plenty of console martyrs around this site who are equally elitist as PC gamers so to say this site has more PC or Console elitists is a fallacy in my experience of this site.

 

[GeorgW]

All of them? (excluding wii and mobile of course) Don't make me choose!
I guess PS3 at the moment given that it's the most recent, but I do play pretty equally on my 360, PS3 and PC.
And OP, why are you surprised at the results, this community is very vocally and adamantly the PC master race type crowd.

See my above post as this is generally a 50/50 site that survey which I forgot to mention was something like 52% PC and 48% consoles.

But that was a while ago, I think it's a much bigger divide now.

Which is why I said to see the above post as it is normal to see a shift like this near the end of a console gen as PC becomes much more cost effect in short term start up costs in relation to its power. While consoles have fixed hardware quality and not so much of a fall in price(well usually). It will be more console gamers when next gen comes out, then equal and back to here again near the end. So far most of the gens after the "Golden Age" of PC gaming tend to be like that. Just to add there are plenty of console martyrs around this site who are equally elitist as PC gamers so to say this site has more PC or Console elitists is a fallacy in my experience of this site.

I think that's a very good analysis. Also, the PC has seen a bit of a resurgence these last few years, with more and bigger PC exclusives, plus the indie scene has gotten really big, and has always been best on PC.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

All of them? (excluding wii and mobile of course) Don't make me choose!
I guess PS3 at the moment given that it's the most recent, but I do play pretty equally on my 360, PS3 and PC.
And OP, why are you surprised at the results, this community is very vocally and adamantly the PC master race type crowd.

See my above post as this is generally a 50/50 site that survey which I forgot to mention was something like 52% PC and 48% consoles.

But that was a while ago, I think it's a much bigger divide now.

Which is why I said to see the above post as it is normal to see a shift like this near the end of a console gen as PC becomes much more cost effect in short term start up costs in relation to its power. While consoles have fixed hardware quality and not so much of a fall in price(well usually). It will be more console gamers when next gen comes out, then equal and back to here again near the end. So far most of the gens after the "Golden Age" of PC gaming tend to be like that. Just to add there are plenty of console martyrs around this site who are equally elitist as PC gamers so to say this site has more PC or Console elitists is a fallacy in my experience of this site.

I think that's a very good analysis. Also, the PC has seen a bit of a resurgence these last few years, with more and bigger PC exclusives, plus the indie scene has gotten really big, and has always been best on PC.

Well we will have to see what happens but I think we are at another interesting point in gaming history with the popularity of mobile gaming, the Wii and "Casual" gaming and this sort of possible second coming of the PC as mainstream platform.

 

[Regiment]

I'm surprised that the PC is the favorite by that much, but not surprised that it's the favorite. I imagined that about half of people play on the PC, and half on a console of some sort.

 

[Uriain]

if I answered this about 3 months ago, I would have said Xbox. Lately though, I am finding myself buying more games for PS3 and PC as Xbox isnt really "doing it" for me anymore. I buy some games, like CoD or Spacemarine, LotR:WotN on Xbox, mainly because the majority of my friends who play videogames only grab multiplayer titles on Xbox.

So I said PS3, as I am playing both Batman's, Fifa 12, God of War III, and Darkstalkers on the PS3 right now, and BF3, Skyrim, soon to be SW:ToR and Rage on PC

 

[King of Wei]

Xbox 360 for me. Though once I get a job and have some disposable income of my own, i'll be getting a gamming PC ASAP.

 

[Wolfram23]

Almost 500 respondants and 63.5% are on PC? What the hell? I was pretty sure these forums were flooded with consolitis. I mean, console gamers.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Skyrim...

 

[endtherapture]

PC. All the latest games run fine on my PC, advantage of cheap games, gog.com, Steam sales, mods etc. It's the best platform.

Occasionally play on my Gamecube and GBA SP though

 

[windlenot]

Forgive me for not reading all posts for the previous 4 pages to see if this point was brought up, but isn't it a bit wrong to ask this question on through a media mostly accessed through PCs? I mean sure, you can access it through Wii, PS3, and Mobile, but there's no way I use internet browsers the same way I use it here now. But those are just my thoughts.

 

[ChaoticKraus]

I have a medium range PC and a PS3, my lil brothers have a Wii. I'm rarely limited by platform when it comes to games. I mostly use the PC though.

 

[HerrBobo]

PC.

I can see why people game on 360 or PS3 though.

My 8800GTX game up the ghost on the 22nd of August after three and a half great years together. I bought a replacement for ?70, but that broke too. At that point I thought it might in fact be my hard drive that was causing errors, so I bought a new one for ?50. I did not fix the problem. It turns out that my MoBo had gone bad and was shorting out the cards.

So, I bought a new MoBo and a new CPU for ?250 and got them installed for ?80. At this point I was broke and I started saving for a new card and RAM.

As luck would have it, my Dad gave me ?1000 when I graduated for my M.A. I went out and bought a new screen for ?200, eight gigs of RAM for ?80 and a new 570GTX for ?337.

Te card was broken out of the box, I got it checked at a local store for ?35.

I have returned it to the site I bought it off and I'm waiting for a refund at the moment. I just hope they give me one and don't say that I broke it, or some shit!

So, to sum up I have been with out a proper card for 107 days, so I can not play any new games (I have an onboard ATI 3000 that does play some older stuff). Fixing/upgrading has cost me ?997 and everything is still not sorted!

I love pc gaming. A pc can do everything a console can and more. It is the cutting edge of gaming from indie to AAA shooters, from arcade racing to hardcore WW1 flight sims. When things are going right it is the best platform for gaming, IMHO.

When things go wrong though, it is expensive and frustrating to get right.

These issues have testing my belief in pc gaming. I'm still a believer, but I can now see when people go with 360/ps3.