PC Games - Console 'Tax'

[Pia]

"Console tax" refers to the part of the price of a console game or controller which goes to Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo.

 

[s1njin]

"Console tax" refers to the part of the price of a console game or controller which goes to Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo.

I couldn't come up w/ a nicer way to ask 'Are Consoles Borking the PC experience'.

As for your definition, I don't consider that a tax. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo have to you know, actually make money on their investment right? If they gave it to you at cost, we'd all be playing hang-man on paper.

 

[Veliko]

If consoles are borking the PC experience then that is a problem caused by the various PC industry hardware manufacturers and in some cases the PC-only crowd themselves.

 

[Bateluer]

The "console kiddie" term is getting really tired. As if kids are the only ones playing on consoles. But I'm aware you say it because you think it makes you sound cool.

I think you misunderstand the phrase, allow me to explain. 'Console kiddie' refers not just to the physical age of the individual, rather, their maturity and intelligence. Mature people with attention spans tire very quickly of playing the same FPS title every year, and paying an ever increasing sticker price for it.

I've no idea how EA/Activision/Ubi-Soft/et al can somehow claim that development costs are rising when the differences between MW2 and MW3, for example, are what would be considered a large patch or a DLC pack for an RPG. A handful of devs could do the work to create 'Generic Big Name FPS-2' from 'Generic Big Name FPS-1', released the previous year.

 

[s1njin]

I think you misunderstand the phrase, allow me to explain. 'Console kiddie' refers not just to the physical age of the individual, rather, their maturity and intelligence. Mature people with attention spans tire very quickly of playing the same FPS title every year, and paying an ever increasing sticker price for it.

I've no idea how EA/Activision/Ubi-Soft/et al can somehow claim that development costs are rising when the differences between MW2 and MW3, for example, are what would be considered a large patch or a DLC pack for an RPG. A handful of devs could do the work to create 'Generic Big Name FPS-2' from 'Generic Big Name FPS-1', released the previous year.

Sometimes its a herd mentality. If you play w/ a group of friends and they start jumping ship, pretty soon you're playing by yourself. So you sorta get into the whole 'keeping up w/ the joneses' schtick.

I agree w/ you regarding MW2 and MW3. The whole reason I skipped BLOPS was because I did the MW1 to MW2 thing and felt the same way. Fast forward to now, and I DID by MW3. Why? Nobody I game w/ was playing the games I had, so I filled EA's pockets with more money.

 

[Lonyo]

I thought this was going to be a thread about PC games costing $60 while console games also cost $60, even though on PC you don't have to pay any royalties to the console manufacturer. That's my idea of a console tax.

 

[Pia]

I couldn't come up w/ a nicer way to ask 'Are Consoles Borking the PC experience'.

As for your definition, I don't consider that a tax. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo have to you know, actually make money on their investment right? If they gave it to you at cost, we'd all be playing hang-man on paper.

Not my definition, but the established definition.

To be exact, console tax is the MS/Sony/Nintendo cut of 3rd party games and peripherals on their platforms. The extra bit you pay for the game, or for the pad or the joystick, that you wouldn't pay for the PC equivalent because there is no platform owner and gatekeeper taking a cut.

 

[shortylickens]

I thought this was going to be a thread about PC games costing $60 while console games also cost $60, even though on PC you don't have to pay any royalties to the console manufacturer. That's my idea of a console tax.

Last I checked Amazon, Modern Warfare 3 was 41 bucks for the windows version and 59 for the two big consoles and 51 for the wii.

 

[SZLiao214]

My tower is aging but still plays everything I feel like firing up at really high settings:

i7 920
6gb tri-chan Mem
5770 1gb
256gb SSD

I keep feeling like I'm supposed to upgrade because its been so long. I did the hard drive just for space (had 160gb SSD before).

If your cpu is oced all you would have to do is change out your graphics card and you would be good for quite a while longer

 

[s1njin]

Not my definition, but the established definition.

To be exact, console tax is the MS/Sony/Nintendo cut of 3rd party games and peripherals on their platforms. The extra bit you pay for the game, or for the pad or the joystick, that you wouldn't pay for the PC equivalent because there is no platform owner and gatekeeper taking a cut.

Thanks for explaining this to me Pia. I got it now.