What is more profitable for game developers, PC or Consoles?

Digital distributions generate massive profit on PC.

1. Extremely low cost.
No packaging cost, no delivery fee, no material cost - all you are selling is the license to play. The only variable expense per sale is fee paid to the distributor (e.g. Valve, D2D). It's so lucrative that it's no surprise EA wants to start its own Origin to skip the middle-man.

2. Lower price = higher quantity demanded.
Basic economics. Depending on the developers, the digital version purchases are often cheaper than box versions (not always the case at launch). The lower the price, the higher the quantity demanded. Video games in nature are rather elastic, just a pretty non-essential enjoyment compared to some other necessaries. As such, the total revenue is expected to be higher.

3. Ease of access.
A lot of gamers are lazy. If it means that a game can be delivered, then waiting at a store may sound less attractive. Oh wait, delivery is rather slow and you want the game at launch? Well, digital distribution has been the solution. You don't have to leave your comfortable lounge, basement or evil laboratory, nor wait for a game to arrive past its release date. It's just like ordering pizza in WoW with /pizza, except that was lie.

Add:
One of the reasons games on consoles are more expensive than PC is because Microsoft doesn't charge PC developers to run games on their Windows... yet. Developers on console even have to pay MS/Sony for DLCs, even if they plan on making the said DLCs free.

Renting or second-hand trading of console games is just as damaging as piracy, and it occurs more frequently for console platforms. I'm not saying that piracy on PC is somehow better, but the fact remains that whether it's on PC or consoles, gamers have ways to not pay the original developer. How big is the gap between the platforms? Which platforms suffer the most? We don't really know just how much renting there is compared to piracy, and it wouldn't be very useful assuming things without reliable data.

Pretty sure consoles since they are more mainstream.

turtlethetaffer

Consoles I would imagine, way more people use them for gaming over PC.

TheEpicGoat

The PC gaming userbase globally is estimated in the hundreds of millions. Single high end GPU models often outsell entire consoles quarterly. The PC pulled in over $16 billion in revenue last year!

Consoles. Period.

Heirren

You may want to back this up. At the end of the day, there are way to omany variable to really state one or the other. It'll be different for every dev/publisher.

consoles expect RTS gamesJohn_Read

[QUOTE="Dr_Snood"][QUOTE="fsurb28"]

consoles are cheaper, not everyone has money for a decent rig, then a couple months later a game comes out that you're interested in but find out you have to upgrade but you don't have the money, but to me it's simple - make a quality game that has multiplayer and boom there you go to profit

fsurb28

that's the way i feel, i mean why have a nice rig instead of a cheaper console if i don't have the dough to run it at max settings, it's like having a 200mph car when the speed limit is 65, what's the point

[QUOTE="fsurb28"]

[QUOTE="Dr_Snood"] Well it's definitely completely false that you have to upgrade every couple of months to play a new PC game. That is unless you want to play everything at max settings and nothing below.MacGyver2188

that's the way i feel, i mean why have a nice rig instead of a cheaper console if i don't have the dough to run it at max settings, it's like having a 200mph car when the speed limit is 65, what's the point

Your PC might max everything that you play, but there are definitely games out there that it won't max. Anything DirectX 11 capable, for starters.

[QUOTE="MacGyver2188"][QUOTE="fsurb28"]

that's the way i feel, i mean why have a nice rig instead of a cheaper console if i don't have the dough to run it at max settings, it's like having a 200mph car when the speed limit is 65, what's the point

PurpleMan5000

Your PC might max everything that you play, but there are definitely games out there that it won't max. Anything DirectX 11 capable, for starters.

doesn't really matter. the only thing that does is comparative power, and a pc like that absolutely dominates consoles