What makes PC versions of multi plats so much cheaper?

Is it because developers know anyone can just pirate it (and most do) so they just drop the price in order to at least get some $.

If it wasn't for consoles PC would ONLY have F2P crap, MMO's, and RTS games.

Because the digital market on PC is a buyer's market, not a seller's.

Cost of distribution is cheaper, wider market.

Weren't you banned? Gone quiet for a while.

If it wasn't for consoles PC would ONLY have F2P crap, MMO's, and RTS games.

Platform holder's royalties, development costs, marketing costs, pakaging, fuel, etc.

All of those are lower with PC, and there are no royalty fees

Because hermits aren't stupid enough to pay silly prices for mediocre games..

it is because the pc ecosystem does not have to support used games

because PC gamers dont bend over and take whatever price publishers throw at them up the butt like console babies.

No royalties to pay.

Please,have a source

What's up Deep Down

@ps4hasnogames:

supply and demand

and some publishers still try to get PC gamers to pay $60 as if we don't know any better.

because poor sale number on PC

Yup. Definitely this, now i'm gonna go back and delete all my sources that say otherwise.

Also PC gamers don't get milked ;-)

as two peopel already mentioned, there is no royalties for admission to the platform, and only on storefronts, unlike on console a Publisher would pay royalties to MS or Sony.

Given that PV versions of most games rake up around 33% of sales for released multiplats, it makes the pc the most profitable one, with the catch. Aperreingly most PC users do not play hype as uch as console mainly crowds, so there is a chance you can create and hype something up and have sales boom to unheard of levels on the PC (Blizzard titles and valve titles likely being the only exception to this that I know of).

Ofcourse the opposite is also quite true, COnsole mainly gamers tend to not stray out of thier comfort zones, they buy the same kind of game, and usually just stick to a few game series alltogether, which is one of the major reasons we saw so many devs and Publishers shut Down last gen.

you mad? lol

wish me the worst

Sony and Microsoft (and maybe Nintendo?) charge licensing fees to put games out on their platforms.

Because Console Gamers enjoy paying a extra £10 for exactly the same product.

Well, I wouldn't say that's unfair with the increase cost of development.

During the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era PC games were $50 while console games were also $50. I don't remember complaining back then.

I just like that it's not all PC games releasing at full price. There are so many middle-tier devs that command only middle-tier prices of $20-$40, and I love that the PC environment lets those devs thrives amongst cheap downloadables, and high-end blockbusters.

On consoles it seems almost as if every dev is forced to release their retail product at full price, and I think that ends up hurting a lot of devs. I don't think it actually is forced, but some pressure must be put on devs to release at $60. That's probably a huge reason why so many middle-tier devs went bankrupt developing for consoles last gen.

Troll thread in disguise. But if you really want an answer, no fees need to payed to MS, Sony or Nintendo to put on their console.

Unfortunatly, companies are trying to bs their way by making th same costs as physical console copies.

Because they know console gamers are dumb casuals that will waste more money for easy and linear entertainment.

@OhSnapitz said:

So pc gamers are too busy wearing 17th century clothing and sailing across the ocean on their ships?

Why didn't anyone tell me about this.

royalties is the major reason it's 50 vs 60 or 40 vs 50. But in some regions piracy is also a reason for stupidly cheap games

You pay extra on consoles for the premium cinematic feel don't you?

I'm not complaining. I'd gladly pay less money.

The Evil Within on Amazon UK is:

£26 for PC

£47 for Console

EDIT:

Why is that game and others $60 for both PC and console on Amazon US?

pretty much. they know they spent next to nothing developing it anyway, i mean we all know what complete and utter shit pc ports are. just bargain bin price it and hope for impulse buys.

That's complete BS, if used games died tomorrow console games would still be the same price if not more. In fact I'd be willing to bet they wouldn't drop as fast in price as publishers would have very little incentive.

Fixed

@Shielder7: Renting them? I would rather pay less and have it as Digital Copy than pay over the odds for exactly the same game and I dont even own a PC. SO you never downloaded games from Live, Eshop or PSN as I have downloaded from all 3? For instance AC4 is cheaper to download than to buy pre owned here in UK on Eshop.

No. I'll actually avoid buying a game until I get GOTY version and one of the reasons is so I don't have to download.

On top of the reason of liking a physical copy we have these little annoyances like data caps in Canada (That are actually getting more expensive) and it's not just rural areas, in fact the more populated the area the less choice you actually have as Bell and Rogers (one of our only 2 providers up here) don't care enough to bully out the competition in low populated zones.

http://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/Internet_access

https://www.rogers.com/web/link/hispeedBrowseFlowDefaultPlans

We're also getting completely raped in the Cell Phone department as Bell and Rogers are literately the only 2 companies allowed up here and have Canada in a total monopoly, but that's another story.

@Shielder7: lol Canada.

This, this, and that.

Developers have flexible rights on PC. No one owns them. In order for there to be a Sale on Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft platforms companies like EA, Activision, Sega, Capcom, etc...have to get approval of Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft FIRST. Unlike services like Steam where Developers have full control of their sales and can lower the price of their games whenever they want to.

Because PC players won't stand for it. Will just torrent it, if they see some greedy fucks with their hands out like they're poor.

@Shielder7: One word "ouch". Feel for there Dude. Lucky me being UK.

Royalties, about $10 per game.
You aren't done paying for your console hardware when you pay the initial price.

crappy third world country

A little bit of this:

and this:

But mostly it's because developers have to pay Sony, Nintendo and MS in order to develop a game for their console (= buy a dev kit) and when they sell games they have to pay a certain amount of money per sold game (= royaltee fees)

On PC you can just start developing and release a game without having to pay anything. That is also why MS dropped PC gaming and moved to console gaming. They wanted to be paid when people release something on their platform.

Can you list me all those RTS games coming out please ?

Because afaik there are barely any coming out.

That's why Dreamcast, DS and PSP were pirated to death.

Damn you PC gamers !!!!!

Because PC gamers aren't so willing to bend over and take it with no lube like consolites are.

The console market has to prop up the entire used game industry.

Because many console fans believe more money = better game.

now it makes perfect sense why every single Triple A game sells and makes more money on consoles. Just wait for the new Doom to make more money on consoles too. It's all because of used games!

It's not because of piracy . It is because PC gamers vote with their wallets and don't become someone else's b*tch . When they drop the price , games sell even better than before . There is also some no-tax thing involved , so games are already cheaper than consoles on launch (and you don't have to pay for subscription) . On other hand , Sony and M$ take their share , when game releases on consoles . So in the case of PC , even if sales are lower on it , the profit is way more than consoles .

As for second part , PC have lot of genres , not just the ones you listed (that are played by lot of people , so of course those aren't crappy genres . You just can't play them because of lack of skills or because those aren't available on your preferred platform OR just aren't for you) .

May be you are too lazy to do a research about it , so I'll mention some PC genres for you : RTS , Survival Horror , Mobas , MMOs , Old School FPS , wRPGs , cRPGs , Turn based strategy , point and click adventure games , Space Sims , War Simulators , Open World Fantasy , Racing Sims , Online Survival Games etc etc etc . All of these genres (and more) are next to non existent on consoles when compared to PC library .

Two reasons. PC development costs don't have the console licensing fees as overhead. Console manufacturers charge for the use of dev kits and I believe even get a small portion of the sales of games.

The second reason is that PC games today are primarily digitally distributed which drastically cuts down on overhead. A lot of devs can even skip a publisher today which further reduces overhead and increases profitability.

Basically PC games are more profitable so they can afford to drop the price to sell more copies at the same profit margins as a $60 retail console game.

Of course some PC charge $60 anyways because people are simply willing to pay that much and they make even more money. Blizzard is the main offender of this.

because they're usually lesser versions of the console games, and they know everybody's just going to pirate it anyways because pc gamers don't like paying for the things they take

Its just role reversal. Cows were doing it last gen, lems before that.

You are only right if you combine all the console sales and ignore digital sales. Also, whats your point?