You can't discount low end PCs as they are part of the reason why PC games are cheaper and are why the market is larger than the new gen consoles, regardless of whether people get the full experience or not.
You can't discount the PS2 then, which means on average console games are only slightly higher priced, for the reasons already given, and the console market is much larger if you ignore people who only play free online flash games. Out of everyone I know, and most of my friends are gamers, I'm about the only one who has a PC capable of playing new games. I can understand what you're trying to do, but comparing the entire PC gaming market to just a small section of the console market is horribly inaccurate. If you're going to take the entire PC market you're going to have to take the whole console market as well, which is massive.
I think if you are going to pirate a PC game then you'll do it anyway regardless of prices, apart from if you want functional online services that you need a legit game to use. But, lower PC game prices might discourage people from turning to piracy in the first place, which might affect your moralistic approach on a longer term.
But my answer is fine within the confines of the original post? Basically comes down to the units they can sell on each platform, the associated fees along with it and the level of profit they want to make from each market, the available market for PCs is large regardless of how good the kit is whereas the new gen console market share is not so good, in terms of monetry value the Xbox market is quite near the PC but when its typically £17-25 versus £40-50 its not hard to see why, that still puts the number of units sold a vastly different numbers, its like that whole Halo3 being the biggest entertainment launch what a joke, how much is halo and how much is a cinema ticket For a lot of people a low spec PC can provide the same experience as a 360 because most people haven't gone HD, a lot of games will be perfectly playable on a 6 series with decent quality, Source is very good for that, blimey I used to game on a 6200Turbo cache and it was great 1024x768 I'm sure the low end has moved on from that.
But if you look at a sales chart week by week, it's always console games that top the charts, consoles have no problems shifting units whatsoever, very rarely will you see a PC game in the top 5, and even rarer still is when it tops the sales charts. It's not really a factor in the price of a game.
my thoughts on the difference in console and pc game prices is that due to game developers having to pay a license fee to the likes of sony and microsoft therefore uping the retail price and because not one company makes the pc there is no license fee
isnt it something to do with competition? xbox vs ps3 is basically a case of , this is the price our competitors sell at. this is what we can offer. Wii obviously indercuts all competition and if xbox/sony sold at those prices then they;d probably go bust. PC i think i'd agree with the guys who say that theres no licensing issues....although having said that, dont apple have to pay like a million for the rights to publish Half Life 2 for macs?
nah... there is one particular game I would buy if it was less than £65 which I am quite INCLINED to download if it were not for my uncertinty about getting caught I mean if looking glass can charge normal prices for there (excelent) flight sims I'm sure M$ could too (if they weren't into scamming the most unlikly gaming segment to download).
Yet another reason to game on your PC Not saying xbox gaming is bad, infact it's great! HD and all that, just need a keyboard and mouse for me then