mechmouse: PC games are, on the whole, more expensive than consoles. Due to lack of 2nd hand market and heavy reliance on Digital distribution.
Randalator: I disagree on the last part. Even second hand console games are usually a lot more expensive than PC games. PC games are cheaper as full price and they are cheaper in sales, precisely because of digital distribution. The ubiquity, immediacy and simplicity of digital distribution has resulted in most PC games selling for full retail price for less than a year and regular sales with massive discounts.
Also there is no need for a big second hand market anymore because sale prices are cheaper today than second hand prices used to be before digital distribution. As for sales, you had to wait many years to find a game, let alone a AAA game, in a bargain bin for a price that they today regularly reach after 2-3 years. And they're available for everyone at that price, not just the lucky fuck who managed to find the one single copy at the bottom of the bin.
If anything makes PC games more expensive than console games, it's the combined price for game and platform. If you don't buy many games, the higher price of a decent gaming PC will make the gaming experience overall more expensive.
I can not disagree with you more.
New PC games will get a couple of 10-20% sales in the first year, may be 20 days. However after a year the base price is normally still the original RRP. Maybe £5 less, shops that bought physical media will have 1/2'ed the price on a console game after a year.
As for a bargain bin, the internet is your bargain bin. I found new sealed physical PC disc for civ5 and others.
Digital distribution removes most of the factors that cause depreciation. Sales are used to pump up interest in a market that would otherwise stagnate. When I last looked it up Black Op's 2 was still at full release price even though it was 3 years old.
