Bob Caswell - Latest Comments in PC Gaming Soon To Be Affordable: Growing Popularity Equals Better Competition

Re: PC Gaming Soon To Be Affordable: Growing Popularity Equals Better Competition

bobcaswell — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:28:35 -0000

Paul,

Good point, sort of like Sony counting PS3s as sales of blu-ray players...

But at the same time, the industry is changing and the breakdown you suggest may not be as significant as it once was. Meaning, the Wii and now Xbox Live Arcade are making it such that consoles are getting their own significant share of casual gamers while the PC gamer base is converting more of those solitaire players into midrange (better term?) gamers.

Re: PC Gaming Soon To Be Affordable: Growing Popularity Equals Better Competition

Paul Ellis — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:10:24 -0000

As a side note, that should be cite, note site. Don't you hate it when you only see a typo right after you hit submit?

Re: PC Gaming Soon To Be Affordable: Growing Popularity Equals Better Competition

Paul Ellis — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:09:14 -0000

Just had to chime in on the stats sited for percentage of people who play an "electronic game" every week. I hate it when people compare console game play where people went out and bought a console and games, to "computer gaming" where a lot of the people being counted as playing games are playing games like Freecell, Solitaire, or Hearts. That is a completely different consumer and experience.

Re: PC Gaming Soon To Be Affordable: Growing Popularity Equals Better Competition

bobcaswell — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:03:18 -0000

Droniac,

I agree that gaming PCs are overpriced (even with these new developments). But home assembly (which is what I did, incidentally) is still a ways off from being accessible to the average consumer, especially considering that warranty and service is a nightmare when you go for a custom made.

Re: PC Gaming Soon To Be Affordable: Growing Popularity Equals Better Competition

Droniac — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:58:54 -0000

Interesting story, but those figures are completely off. PC gaming has never been for avid gamers willing to spend $5000 on a system, or at least it hasn't been for the past decade or so. I only know one gamer willing to spend that kind of money on his system, and he's a multimillionaire.

These kinds of pre-assembled gaming rigs are totally overpriced, they always have been and they probably always will be. The Blackbird 002 for example is less capable than my new custom gaming PC, which cost $1300 less (or $1700 less if you count the $400 I made on my old PC).

So sure, the price of pre-assembled PCs is dropping, but this is merely because the price of custom PCs is dropping as well. Furthermore, it's easy to find inexpensive pre-assembled PCs in webshops nowadays, which are a much better alternative if you don't know everything there is to know about the latest computer hardware.

Home assembly, or selecting your own components and having the shop assemble it, can easily save you 50% of the cost for a high end gaming PC. Don't know the latest about computer hardware yourself? Look up your local whizkid and have him give you some advice, or google for some recent recommendations by major hardware sites. It's not hard to find these things nowadays - and it can save you a lot of money.