You can buy a next-gen console crushing gaming PC for around $800-- any garden variety core i5 with a 7950 will do quite nicely. Obviously that is almost twice as much as the console, but that won’t be the case in a year or two.
DrDel
1927
Nice link thanks…
BUT the computers in that link do not come with a Kinect camera Spyware hardware piece. They also don’t have “always on” technology.
These are features (including being spied on by the NSA) that I have come to expect in 2013. Bummer.
Yep, PCs are cheaper than ever, especially if you have some of the parts already (monitor or OS for example).
Quaro
1929
Really cool Kinect stuff is something that might get to look seriously as the Xbox. Nothing shown so far though.
There have been some mobile-aimed ones. But generally, if there’s a yes/no platform holder, you can’t guarantee it’ll make the platform and hence cannot KS it…which just highlights the issue consoles have.
Thraeg
1931
Even that’s pretty conservative – I’d say closer to $650 for a basic off-the-shelf PC and a mid-range GPU would be plenty to match or exceed the consoles’ performance.
I don’t know, the “next-gen” adaptations like equal GPU/CPU memory access will help the consoles some. For another year, at best, sure but… $800 is safer :)
So what would be today’s PC equivalent of the XBOX One?
rei
1934
Looks like I’m out this generation. My decades long gaming hobby has waned enough.
mono
1935
Under $850 gets you an I5, 8GB RAM, a 1TB drive and a GTX 660 Ti. Don’t even buy an optical drive.
Jazar
1936
c’mon a 660Ti won’t play next gen games very well.
There has to be some money to be made in a Xbone shroud. Although I have nothing to hide, my life is not any of anyone’s damn business. I am already allowing entirely too much of my personal data/habits to be monetized and monitored. At least I can credit Microsoft for making think about my habits and doing a good house cleaning.
Sorry for the minor derail.
Reed
1938
You mean like a cozy for the Kinect?
A Kozy, if you will.
Yeah with an internal metal mesh. That would solve the actual Kinect hardware issue. Seems to me the software side will require something substantially more complicated.
I just recalled Bunny hacking the Xbox. Maybe we will lucky enough this time so that instead of running another OS on a console we can not get data mined without explicit consent.
Jazar
1940
It’s not just the video you need to concern yourself about.
Agreed. It is not at all the expensive hardware race that it once was. I almost never update my PC anymore. In fact hardware failures have been the main motivator for tinkering with my PC rather than out dated gear that needs to be swapped out for crazy expensive parts. I mean… Hardware failure!? I never had parts that long in and before the PS2/ Xbox generation.
And the real savings is that often games are $10 cheaper (lack of licensing costs) or even more with some GMG code. Even better if you just wait a month or so and the grab a winter, spring, mid week whatever sale for 30 to 50% off. Or just wait until the following year’s winter sale and buy a game for pennies on the dollar.
In the end, I really don’t see much difference in console vs PC financially. It is more about when and how you want to spend the money along with couch vs office comforts.
Canuck
1942
So what does MS do now? Mount a retreat? Drop their price by $100? Throw the whole DRM scheme in the garbage? They will be the only console that doesn’t allow you to give away your games to your friends.
Remember MS bundles the kinect, if they drop their price they will take a bath. I don’t see that they have much of a choice, though.
It seems unlikely they can just throw away the DRM at this point.
Oh MS isn’t going to strip the DRM, although they will likely relax some of the policies. Instead of one hour, 12 hours. And so on. They’re betting that most people don’t really care about that stuff, they just say they do.
Thing is, everybody cares about the base price. That, they need a direct response.
