Is PC gaming that much cheaper?

Crytek ate their own hands off during the jump for the mystical console pot of gold.

According to The simExchange, the NPD Group reported that Crysis moved 86,633 retail units in the first two weeks of its release in North America,^[57] but while it beat their expectations, the sales were considered disappointing overall.^[58] Two months later, on Electronic Arts' earnings conference of the quarter, it was reported that Crysis had reached the 1 million units mark, and that it had exceeded their expectations.^[59] On the other hand, Cevat Yerli stated during an interview with PC Play in April 2008 that he was disappointed to see the game leading the charts in piracy and because of that his studio would not produce any more PC exclusives, as he believed a game such as Crysis would sell four to five times more copies if it was released on consoles.

Crysis: By May 2010 the game has sold over 3 million units (and its standalone expansion about 1.5 million units)^[64] making it one of the best selling PC games of all time.

This is the folly of Crytek. Especially Cevat. He misread the market just like cranler and assumed 1 pirate copy = 1 lost sale. Misread that PC games sell over long periods of time as hardware upgrades cascade. Thought consoles would sell 4x-5x, but I've seen little proof that any of the versions hit over 3 million. Crytek could come back with spiritual successor to Crysis and make it exclusive and it would sell gangbusters. That's the sad irony.

TFW some of you console gamers spend THIS much effort to prove something that is both wrong and meaningless.

It's always funny to see these kind of threads last for so long..

A decent PC will last you longer than a console generation. It will cost you more initially, but will be cheaper in the long run. The differnce will be not that huge if you count 4 years side by side. By that I mean I build a PC, and buy a console today and see which one cost more after 4 years.

But like I said before, a PC will last you longer if you want to keep up with the latest releases. And on top of that a PC is not a one trick pony.

It's not really rocket science

Let's not forget how they made a Xbox One launch exclusive and it did so badly that they had to resort to porting it to PC

or ironically most games made with their multiplat cryengine are PC games and the biggest AAA game using their engine is a PC exclusive

lmao

wannabe pc gamers keep trying to prove that pc cost less in the long run? maybe, if you stick to cheapo low end one, but at PC Master Race level? rofl that is close to impossible

let's try to think this through

heck, I can start with something that is not essential for gaming on pc but has become increasingly more commonly adopted and somewhat a primary... today, in this gaming generation, for those who are into pc gaming, usually you would want to have a gamepad... a quick google can show us an x360 pad cost like $30 now, double that number for the xbone version; even more expensive for the wireless version...

then again as usually seen nowdays, you may want an audio DAC and a headphone... cost how much? can easily cost you $150-200 for a decent entry pair of these audio equipment...

then decent gaming mice and keyboard... again can cost you in the region of $150-200...

that's like what? almost $600? for a set of stuffs that while not the primary essentials but are becoming the norm for pc gamers today... and I haven't even talk about the PC Master Race grade stuffs like HOTAS + pedals, steering wheel set, higher end of mechanical keyboard, more expensive mice etc.

the supporting peripherals alone can cost like $1000 or more...

again I must restate, those are not the primary essential stuffs you would need to game on pc, but those stuffs are becoming more and more popular and has been acknowledged as must have for those who are into pc gaming; oh believe me, our ego dictate that we must have those things... which pc gamers today that are still using barebone 20 years old office keyboard and mice anymore??? even I can bet that for the old farts who were started at the '70s or '80s would've used decent (read $$$) peripherals today, not that joke of $20 keyboard and mice combo.

I haven't even touched the primary hardware there! let's for example take the display... a standard 24 inches monitor cost you what... $150? but again, that is barebone cheapo multimedia office crap level of monitor that is so a decade old for today, the real talk begin at 27 inches 2560x1440 one and that cost how much??? even that is by current standard already so meh peasantry level... the PC Master Race level begin at around $500, do you fancy ultra wide or multi monitor or gsync? easy $1000 or above... and I haven't even talk about VR hardware there.

then what, the GPU? tell you what... at 2560x1440 and above, single GTX 980 won't last long... heck even for SLI setup one won't last long, the max is around 2-3 years, after that you would want something much faster.

you are also fooling yourself if you want to stay with mechanical hard drives forever, heck even it's universally accepted that SSD does make difference in pc usage! again those cost like what? also it's been said that more games benefit from SSD install location due to faster load, not just loading screen but also loading game assets, staying with cheapo mechanical hard drives only hurting your experience.

I could go on and go on...

cheapo PC Master Race wannabe should stop their idiot attempt at saying PC gaming is cheap.

But did you really save money? I scrolled through your list and you have only put in serious time for a handful of those games. You have barely beat any of them. Most of them you have barely even touched. Like you played them for 20 minutes and never touched them again. Then the vast majority you have not even played at all.

So you are spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on games you don't even play or barely even touch. How is that saving money?

At least when I buy console games, I actually play them. The sad thing is, most hermits are just like you. They have a massive game collection, but don't play any of their games. What a WASTE OF MONEY.

This is why hermits lose the price argument.

Crytek is lost and it seems to stem from Cevat lumping in the 3 million pc gamers who bought Crysis with the pirates who downloaded it. What's paradoxical is that pirating may have actually helped sales in that case. Data cannot always be taken at face value. Cevat on why C3 was a critical and commercial failure:

Yerli says that players expecting to see major leaps in gameplay and technology are let down by what current generation consoles can offer.

"I think the new generation of consoles will reinvigorate that and help to elevate that again, and elevate new concepts of gaming which old platforms are right now limiting, too."

"The consoles are eight year old devices. Of course, in one way or another, they will limit you. It's impossible not to be limited by a limited console. By definition it's the case. So if it were PC only, could we have done more things? Certainly, yes.

---

He can't even see what's right before his face. lol. Step right up folks! Radeon 7770 and 7850 gonna revolutionize gameplay and graphics. Gone are last gen shackles. Behold Ryse, only possible on next-gen consoles. Sales boosted yay! >_>

You're trying much too hard.

i thought you knew the difference between a closed system and an open one. Consoles are finite, PC's however evolve with the times. I would personally prefer consoles over PC anytime, but that's just me

@notorious1234na: Gotcha

@True_Gamer_: Whats truly bizzare is that you believe the PCs, people compare consoles to on this forum and other forums are in the same class of PCs people in third world countries are using.

@lostrib: From 2008: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/30/crytek-turns-back-on-pc-exclusivity-cites-piracy/

Yerli was always outspoken about his disdain on PC piracy.

Here is an interview from 2012: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-12-ditching-far-cry-piracy-gameplay-and-just-about-breaking-even-crytek-on-the-ups-and-downs-of-the-crysis-series

Here he is using a different reasoning with: "My response to that early on, before we even shipped the game, I said to people the number one reason was the social circle of our developers. There were fewer and fewer actually playing games on PC, as in friends and family members. When they asked, 'when are you making games for consoles?' it was for us a clear move. We had to move to consoles so nephews and brothers and sisters and friends can play your game as well."

Its up to you if you take this reasoning as the truth but even in this interview he was asked about piracy:

"At a personal level I can say this: in a way it was understandable to me. I was thinking, Crysis had pushed the boundaries but also raised the entry barrier. In order to play the game you had to buy or have a very good PC. Knowing how difficult it is with money for entertainment, you would have the choice of, do you want to pirate the game and buy the hardware because you can't pirate hardware, or do you want to buy both? Some people have pirated the game and retrospectively - I'm talking about a handful of people - sent us a cheque for 50 euros in an envelope and said, 'sorry for pirating your game and here's your money.' I wish a million people had done that. That would have been better.

But on the other hand I was not happy. We pushed the boundaries so high but unfortunately we just reached a few people that had the PCs and could just go out and buy the game. So the amount of hardcore gamers with the kind of PCs out there were not enough, so the sales were lower. But we had a long tail. We sold much longer because of the high end specifications of the game."

Are you serious, what is all of this? PC gaming isn't even about hardware, it's about choice in everything you do. It's a myth that only 'real PC gamers' use all that crap.

This whole 'fake PC gamer wannbes' is some made up nonsense by console gamers as some sort of desperate response. If you game on the PC, you are a PC gamer and to what degree you game on it is part of that choice.

What you do with the games is a separate subject and it's up to the individual how much they get. But the truth is, you can get much more for much less on the PC.

Coming over from the Xbox 360 last gen where the console milking began, to PC gaming this gen, one of the first things I noticed is that PC gaming is seriously cheaper. The only times when they are comparable is when publishers of console multiplats over-charge for the PC ports.

Worst case, if you're not smart on the PC, you end up with loads of games you may not play, but the amount you spend, probably won't be ridiculous. But on Xbox and Playstation consoles, YOU HAVE to be smart, they are designed so MS and Sony milk you at every opportunity. And it's only gotten worse, now it's £50 for a game, £25 for a season pass this gen.

The hermits could have an argument with the sheep. But the Cows and Lems will always lose this one, every time.

I've been PC gaming since 2000. I've always had each console system as well. I have everything (PC, PS4, New 3DS, Vita, Wii U) except the Xbox One and I can tell you that you save tons on PC gaming, and you will eventually spend more on a console because you are constantly spending 59.99 on new games and trade in values suck. You really need to hit up Ebay with your used games because there you can get back at least 50%.

I got Shadow of Mordor for 24.99 on a steam sale not long after it was released. My friend just spent 60 bucks on his while I was getting mine for under half that. I almost always buy cross platform games on the PC (price) and there exclusives are many. I can spend 10 bucks on a game from steam and it will last me for weeks. I really only have consoles for there 1st party exclusives in which for now Nintendo is absolutely destroying Sony and Microsoft.

Gee, who would've thought that a game on sale would be cheaper than the same game at MSRP? You know console games go on sale too, right? In fact, late November had Shadow of Mordor go on sale on amazon for $25 and early December it was $30 at Gamestop, both for PS4 (at least, I think the other console versions were the same).

PC gaming is just more expensive of an initial investment.

@thegreatgeneral: I edited out the question long before your reply

Well the DAC and the TV I bought soley for console gaming cost way more then that combined, let alone the speaker system. so go figure *shrug*

Personally, I've come to learn that trading in a game can be a rip off most of the time. Also, there is the chance that you will want to play the game you trade in again. I bought Mortal Kombat 9 like 3-4 times because of it. Lesson learned.

I usually buy games on sale, and when I decide to "trade" them I don't get ripped off by Gamestop, I sell them on ebay instead.

I think smart buyers of console games can do far better, if we are strictly talking about how much money is burned on games. Hell, I have many personal examples where I got such a good deal on a console game... I actually MADE money when i sold it back weeks or months later - or at worst it was a free extended rental. Obviously dumb buyers probably get ripped off even more on consoles, and "smart" buyers can make out good in either area (with steam sales, price mistakes, discounts, "flipping" of physical console games, etc).

What's worse is they basically destroyed any chances of them going back to being PC exclusive or getting mass PC gamer support since they jumped on hating PC bandwagon just because a few PC developers that made console exclusives sold a lot (Epic Games) and thought they could get that Call of Duty money. While they were trashing talking PC other PC games that were released around the same time as Crysis like STALKER sold 2 million in a year with the whole trilogy going over 6 million as of 2010 I believe.

Nowadays we have niche and hardcore games like Arma 3 and Insurgency selling over 400k and 1 million with no mass marketing behind them only word of mouth and internet. Then we have Star Citizen and many other PC games being crowdfunded way beyond their initial goals. I wonder how Cevat Yerli felt when another PC gaming legend decided to use his engine for a PC exclusive and shows him up in getting PC gamer support without even having the actual game yet.

Oh and Warface is big chunk of Crytek's income now thanks to Russian PC gamers, they released it on Xbox 360 and it's dead to the point that they actually removed it.

How does anything you just wrote change the fact that a PC plays a majority of games (multiplat) better than "dedicated gaming" devices?

It's better at gaming, no questions asked.

And Mr.Yuri was forced to release Ryse on PC since it bombed on xbone. At least PC got a far superior version.

And Mr.Yuri is now back to making PC exclusives.

Like Mr.Yuri, most major devs still do PC multiplats, and give it the best treatment nearly all the time.

(P.S., what a bad example for you to have used.)

They never got the money either. Ironically, most of the noise Cevat was making was in 2008, he didn't expect the game to have legs. Sold 4.5+ million between C1+Warhead by the time Crysis 2 got to market and then they spit on PC again with lack of DX11 at launch. I doubt Crysis 2 hit 4.5 million on consoles. It sold up to 3 million and died off.

---

CD Projekt is a similar story. Complaining about piracy and making the jump to the land of milk and honey, consoles. As of last year, The Witcher series has sold 8 million copies.

NPD April 2012: The Witcher 2: EE for 360 debuts at #6 in a month where the top seller was 190k, and it didn't even chart the next month.

---

So let's see, a single platform outsold 2 platforms of over 100 million users in one case, and outsold another platform of over 60 million users in the TW2 case.

Crysis 2 and Witcher 2 were about as core gaming as you can get and they flopped out on consoles compared to PC. PC can you more sales than a whole gen of console install base can. Dat CoD money!

Concessions...I went over that already. Don't try to BS over hardware power vs graphics, it reminds me too much of that pathetic kid that tried to brag about how he was playing Crysis on a Voodoo 5500 card back in 07.....pathetic. History proves that the ratio of graphics to hardware each year is higher for console. You didn't get GTA 5 level graphics with the PS3 from a PC with an AMD 3000 and 7800GTX did you. Besides if you really want to argue about being a cheapass, you could get away on console by renting and borrowing games. Something you can't do on PC.

of course, but there are much more pc gamers that buy ext DAC than console gamers who just usually use their TV audio out directly from the console, not to mention headphone... this is the point, such supporting equipments are more widely sought after by pc gamers than console gamers.

N-Gage > PC.

Yes, the actual high/med end PC system is more expensive than consoles if you want a good one which will easily play most video games better than consoles can. More expensive product = superior product.

But PC savings come in games. This thread has numerous factual link showing on average you will save on games on top of also saving from the lack of a subscription requirement (psn/xbl) for true online.

Overall, high/med end PC gaming is still a bit more expensive, but not by much. The benefits outweigh this extra cost, by far.

Sure is...so long as the games are drm free

I'm sorry man but PC games go on sale way more often. Majority of console games stay full price forever unless they don't sell well.

You're definitely going to save money on games with PC if you shop the sales. They're very frequent as well. If you're always buying games around release, then it doesn't really matter. Consoles have a slight edge there, because you can trade the games back in (I've often gotten all or most of my money back this way).

Console players also have the convenience of borrowing games from friends or renting them.

As someone who's gamed on both, I say PCs are generally more expensive. Anyone denying this is lying to you.

That's not true. I tend to pay around $30 for all my console games. PC sales are obviously better and more frequent, but don't say console players are spending $60 for every game they play. That's simply a lie.

The only time I ever pay $60 is if I want to buy a game on release. But I have to do that with my PC too.

Agreed. For example:

@thegreatgeneral said:

"The study then notes that there are 270 million "core gamers" at the heart of the market (those who dedicate a good deal of money to gaming each year). Unsurprisingly, the count of total gamers swings toward PC when including the casual market, but swings back rather pendulously toward console gamers when only counting "core gamers" (or traditional gamers - those who actually identify as a 'gamer' and contribute monetarily to the industry)."

http://www.gamersnexus.net/news/1318-games-industry-revenue-and-genre-popularity

That "rather pendulous" swing, if the report is to be trusted, still leaves 47% of core gamers as PC gamers in NA and 43% in Europe. So that's some crazy momentum defying pendulum, which swings all the way to the left when we include casuals and stops pretty much in the centre when we exclude them.

Furthermore, when we consider that PC games revenue has surpassed console games revenue, the figures actually suggest that in spite of the lower prices of PC games and all the F2P options, PC gamers are still willing to spend way more per head on gaming than console gamers.

It's also worth noting that despite having a far lower GDP per capita than NA, Europe has a higher ratio of core (high spending) console gamers to core PC gamers than North America (again, that's all according to your report). If PC gaming is for poor people, should we conclude that NA is poorer than Europe?

Honestly, the whole PC/console gamer = peasant argument is really dumb.

@MK-Professor said:

@OhSnapitz said:

@MK-Professor said:

In the last 6 years I have spend around $2000 in total for pc hardware

PC gaming is way cheaper than console gaming.

And that is way cheaper than console gaming, if you consider the cheaper games throughout these years, + if I was a console gamer I will still pay like $1000 in last 6 years away, because I use my pc for other stuff, gaming is just a fraction of what I do with my pc. And if you only want to play games at console graphics and performance then the cost will reduce significantly.

bro.. $2000 in 6 years is NOT "way cheaper" than console gaming. That's hella expensive and I'm sure you could've got a gaming pc for Half the cost. But with upgrades I can see how the cost would rise. My friend you're not making a very good argument for the PC.

yes since i download everything its free!!

the so called master race sure get unsecure when someone just questions something...

@stuff238: Only a consolite could spin thousands of dollars in savings as a bad thing. Yeah, sure I haven't played a lot of them, but my console backlog is just as problematic. But I'm not able to buy 10 games for $2.50 on consoles.

1) is wrong ?

For years now im playing the very same multiplatforms consoles getting on way higher standards. When last generation consolites were playing on 720p , low graphic settings and they were paying for DLC every month ... i was playing at 1200p / maximum graphs while i was getting all DLC for free.

2) League of legends , 8.7 million players online at the same time ... Beat that with any free 2 play game on any console ... oh wait .. theres no such thing as free 2 play on consoles let alone a game of this caliber with 37 million unique players playing it monthly... means that way more people login monthly to play a free 2 play PC game than own a Wii U , X1 and PS4 combined ... Isnt that and hirony ?

3) Old consoles vs a single platform that plays everything ... hmmm

4) Look 3

5) Thnx

6) Most games are sold on consoles but more gamers playing on PC in daily basis way more than any console ever will... No , way more than all 3 consoles combined ever will. Its for a reason why nowdays you see traditionally consoles games finding their way on PC day 1 of their release.

7) Handhelds are not consoles

8) Nor PC exclusives ( LoL , WoW , PoE , SC and myriads of mmorpgs and FPS ) Also there are console exclusives i see at 1080p.

9) So you agree that PCs can do thousands of things other than playing games so their value ( more expensive hardware ) has a greater appeal overall than a cheaper console that does only 1-2 things.

@b_rich84: Yeah, that's not the least bit true. Console games go on sale all the time. The only games that rarely go on sale are Nintendo first party games.

who in this thread is unsecure?

Holy crap, this guy is still around. I've seen these guys videos before. He pretty trolls anyone who likes stuff that isn't sony.

So i've recently found out about Nuuvem. It's a brazilian digital platform but apparently, 100% legit. No russion keys or anything like that.

Don't know if you need a VPN or even if they give you the BR version of the game, but, since they're legit, the brazilian real convertion makes eu/us prices is insanely cheap.

Brand new release seem to be R$ 100, which converts to 30 euros or 35 dollars. They also seem to give alot of discounts, even at launch, so probably even less than that.

Like i said, don't know if i have to use a proxy to buy form then or such, but they're official.

http://www.nuuvem.com.br/

him

The hardware for PC gaming is more expensive than buying a console, the games are much cheaper to buy for PC vs console. Honestly it will cost you right around the same amount of money overall unless your are planning on building a high end gaming rig. If you are building a mid range gaming PC the up front cost will be more than buying a console but taking the whole life cycle into account the money you save on buying PC games will equal out the more expensive up front costs.

You will get a more powerful system & better performance from a gaming PC but there is more than that to consider. I think the biggest difference between PC & consoles to an average consumer is ease of access. With PC gaming even if you get a pre built gaming PC playing games is not a simple as put a game in & play. PC gaming requires you to have a strong knowledge of PC building & software even if you plan on getting a pre built gaming PC. You have to make sure your PC will meet the specs of a game you're planning on buying. Then even after you've confirmed it will run on your rig & buy said game, you will have tune the graphical settings in game to get the best performance out of said game. Not everyone will want to go through this just to play a game & that's where consoles come in.

With consoles you are guaranteed that any game sold for that console will run with the best performance possible for that game, on that console, without having to adjust any settings or having DL any new drivers for the hardware. Pretty much just put the game in & play for the whole life cycle of that console. So to me it's not really a question of what it is cheaper to game on but a question of what is more important to you. Would you rather be able to play the game at higher FPS with better graphical fidelity, with the trade off being some setup required? Or would you rather be able to just put a game in & know it will play at the best possible settings for the hardware inside of said console without having to change any settings or having to make sure your software is all up to date?

This is cute

My PC setup was like $9000

Agreed, PC is just too hard to use.

Yeah right... PC gamers sure get on the defensive for posing a simple question. Doubt it? Look at the amount of comments

I get every single new release on PC at launch for usually around 25 bucks, so yes, it's considerably cheaper.

The thread has legs because PC gamers are on the offensive. Shit, if knew the makeup of system wars you'd see most lems and sheep agree. It's the cows who are going bananas as usual.

Any argument you were making ended when you brought up the used game market. So before the thread even got started.

Most of those comments are factually disproving that youtube video wrong, which happens to be from a youtube-troller who tells lies.