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It's fair to say that anyone wanting to play the latest games will have to spend a lot of money to do this, however no one is forcing them to and there are lots of alternatives for people to use.
The past
Past prices were definetely lower, but as the prices of most things increase I don't think this is completely bad. One example is the box for Monkey Island 2 I came across the other day. Rather than the £30 a new PC game would cost now, it cost £16.99 and for a PC game at the time I considered this fairly expensive (although cheap compared to SNES games). Further back in time I remember buying spectrum games for less than £5 that probably provided me with as much enjoyment as a lot of the games I buy now.
Of course not all game prices have increased, some console game prices have stayed about the same or even decreased. An example of this that I can think of is when Street Fighter 2 Turbo was released for the SNES at a cost of £60. Being a big fan of the streetfighter games (and stupid) I bought this almost straight away, a few week later it was being sold for £40, annoying but it does show that some prices have lowered (if only slightly).
Consoles
When a console comes out it seems to be at quite a high price, games for the console are also fairly expensive and as the console is new there is no option to buy second-hand for quite a while. Considering the cost of getting the newest console, a few games and a few control pads would cost you quite a few hundred pounds - this is quite an expensive option.
However, if you are patient, the costs of these consoles can be reduced radically, especially if you are willing to buy second-hand. Considering this option is usually available less than a year after the console is released, it is not that long a wait, however there is no denying that the desire to own the latest console means that this wait can seem a lot longer.
Console games, on release, seem to generally be more expensive than PC games, however after they've been out a while, the prices can go down quite a bit. A game may come out at around £50 and within a few years only cost you £10, however the popularity of the game itself seems to be quite a factor in this. A very popular game may remain for sale at full price for quite a long time as the demand for the game is still there (Goldeneye), however even with these games you will often be able to pick up a cheap second-hand copy.
Overall I would say that anyone concerned about the cost of gaming who wants to own a console should wait a year or so for the console to come down in price and then try and only buy games when they have been out a while and also come down in price. Initially the costs can be very high and unless you wait the console and games you want will cost you a lot of money.
Of course, for anyone who doesn't mind older consoles, ones such as a SNES or Megadrive can be picked up extremely cheaply (£10-£20) and games for them will cost you between £5-£10 (probably cheaper if you can find someone wanting to sell a console and lots of games together or a dealer). These old consoles are still extremely fun to play and this is a great cheap way of owning a console if you really want one but don't feel you can afford any of the newer ones.
PC's
The initial cost of a PC can be high, however most PC's will also have a longer lifetime than most consoles. Many people seem to have the impression that they need the most powerful PC available, however you can save quite a lot of money if you buy something that will do everything you need rather than just go for impressive numbers. At the moment, for most people, the most powerful PC will provide hardly any extra performance than a much more reasonably priced one. Even when buying a reasonably priced PC for gaming you will still be spending a lot more money than you would on any console, so if gaming is all you want, a PC may be the wrong way to go.
Games tend to be released at about £30 although this does vary a bit from game to game (for example Black & White was on general release at £35 and Worms World Party at £20). After these have been out a few months, unless they are really popular, you can usually find them for sale for around £20, a year or so after this and they will have dropped to £10. Basically, the longer you are willing to wait, the cheaper the game will get. Personally I tend to buy games at various prices depending on how much I want them, Black & White I paid the full £30 for wheras Unreal Tournament, I waited until it cost £10. If you can't afford to buy a game upon release then the only real option is to wait (or hope for a good offer somewhere).
I am unsure as to whether prices are too high, considering the life of many games they seem to be reasonable value for money, especially when compared to the price of a new hardback book that might be read only once or a DVD that someone might only watch a few times. Many people seem to simply be feel they "need" to buy a game upon release and yet if they say the exact same game on budget might not even care about buying it. I would personally say that PC games prices are fair and they reduce in price rapidly enough to give people the option of waiting.
Of course there are cheaper alternatives to buying a game if you own a PC, the number of shareware and freeware games that can be downloaded for free is quite impressive. While most of these games will in general be of a lower quality than general release games, there are some really good quality games that can be downloaded and provide hours of (free entertainment). Considering these options are free (unless you decide to support the author) it is a very cheap way of playing games.
As well as freeware/shareware games, there are also online games that can be played for free, which vary from single-player games such as Space Invaders to 2-player games like Chess to multiplayer games with huge variations in type. Overall there are plenty of free options available that, provided you have free internet access, allow you to quickly find a completely free game to play.
Has anyone else heard of freeloader.com? Basically the site allows you to freely download high quality games, you have to download them in parts and view adverts in order to allow you to do this but it is a completely free way of getting games. While many of the games here you will not have really heard of others, like Grand Theft Auto 2, are ones that you will have and most of the games here are at least worth a look even if you wouldn't actually spend money on them.
PC's also have abandonware and emulation, both of which are not strictly legal but are not so against the law that many people really consider them illegal. Abandonware are games that are no longer being produced and that various sites will allow you to freely download, as these games were actually sold at some time. Doing this isn't completely legal, but because there is no way for the people who originally made the games to further benefit from them (unless they were re-released), I personally consider downloading these games fine. Same with emulation, while I personally would consider N64/Playstation/Dreamcast emulation fairly illegal because these consoles are still in general release and easily available, I don't object at all to older consoles being emulated and feeling the ability to play many of the old games from a SNES/Megadrive/NES/Master System/Game Gear/etc is a great feature of a PC and as many of these games are still extremely fun to play and this provides a very cheap alternative.
Conclusion
I would say that the cost of gaming upon initial release is high, especially for consoles. Console games seem to be around 50% higher than PC games upon release, even if it's the exact same game. For this reason I would personally advise anyone who wants to get the best value from their games to wait a while - most games will come down in price quite rapidly and while it may be a bit annoying to not own a game you really want to play you will save money by waiting.
In terms of PC costs, there are plenty of free alternatives that can be downloaded/accessed over the internet, freeware/shareware/abandonware/emulation and all provide fun games that won't cost you a penny - if you are short of money and want something to play, these are all worth a look.
Overall I would say you get what you pay for - if you want the newest game on the day of release, it's going to cost you a lot. If however you are willing to wait a while, you can get the exact same game for 1/2-1/4 of the price.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.
The past
Past prices were definetely lower, but as the prices of most things increase I don't think this is completely bad. One example is the box for Monkey Island 2 I came across the other day. Rather than the £30 a new PC game would cost now, it cost £16.99 and for a PC game at the time I considered this fairly expensive (although cheap compared to SNES games). Further back in time I remember buying spectrum games for less than £5 that probably provided me with as much enjoyment as a lot of the games I buy now.
Of course not all game prices have increased, some console game prices have stayed about the same or even decreased. An example of this that I can think of is when Street Fighter 2 Turbo was released for the SNES at a cost of £60. Being a big fan of the streetfighter games (and stupid) I bought this almost straight away, a few week later it was being sold for £40, annoying but it does show that some prices have lowered (if only slightly).
Consoles
When a console comes out it seems to be at quite a high price, games for the console are also fairly expensive and as the console is new there is no option to buy second-hand for quite a while. Considering the cost of getting the newest console, a few games and a few control pads would cost you quite a few hundred pounds - this is quite an expensive option.
However, if you are patient, the costs of these consoles can be reduced radically, especially if you are willing to buy second-hand. Considering this option is usually available less than a year after the console is released, it is not that long a wait, however there is no denying that the desire to own the latest console means that this wait can seem a lot longer.
Console games, on release, seem to generally be more expensive than PC games, however after they've been out a while, the prices can go down quite a bit. A game may come out at around £50 and within a few years only cost you £10, however the popularity of the game itself seems to be quite a factor in this. A very popular game may remain for sale at full price for quite a long time as the demand for the game is still there (Goldeneye), however even with these games you will often be able to pick up a cheap second-hand copy.
Overall I would say that anyone concerned about the cost of gaming who wants to own a console should wait a year or so for the console to come down in price and then try and only buy games when they have been out a while and also come down in price. Initially the costs can be very high and unless you wait the console and games you want will cost you a lot of money.
Of course, for anyone who doesn't mind older consoles, ones such as a SNES or Megadrive can be picked up extremely cheaply (£10-£20) and games for them will cost you between £5-£10 (probably cheaper if you can find someone wanting to sell a console and lots of games together or a dealer). These old consoles are still extremely fun to play and this is a great cheap way of owning a console if you really want one but don't feel you can afford any of the newer ones.
PC's
The initial cost of a PC can be high, however most PC's will also have a longer lifetime than most consoles. Many people seem to have the impression that they need the most powerful PC available, however you can save quite a lot of money if you buy something that will do everything you need rather than just go for impressive numbers. At the moment, for most people, the most powerful PC will provide hardly any extra performance than a much more reasonably priced one. Even when buying a reasonably priced PC for gaming you will still be spending a lot more money than you would on any console, so if gaming is all you want, a PC may be the wrong way to go.
Games tend to be released at about £30 although this does vary a bit from game to game (for example Black & White was on general release at £35 and Worms World Party at £20). After these have been out a few months, unless they are really popular, you can usually find them for sale for around £20, a year or so after this and they will have dropped to £10. Basically, the longer you are willing to wait, the cheaper the game will get. Personally I tend to buy games at various prices depending on how much I want them, Black & White I paid the full £30 for wheras Unreal Tournament, I waited until it cost £10. If you can't afford to buy a game upon release then the only real option is to wait (or hope for a good offer somewhere).
I am unsure as to whether prices are too high, considering the life of many games they seem to be reasonable value for money, especially when compared to the price of a new hardback book that might be read only once or a DVD that someone might only watch a few times. Many people seem to simply be feel they "need" to buy a game upon release and yet if they say the exact same game on budget might not even care about buying it. I would personally say that PC games prices are fair and they reduce in price rapidly enough to give people the option of waiting.
Of course there are cheaper alternatives to buying a game if you own a PC, the number of shareware and freeware games that can be downloaded for free is quite impressive. While most of these games will in general be of a lower quality than general release games, there are some really good quality games that can be downloaded and provide hours of (free entertainment). Considering these options are free (unless you decide to support the author) it is a very cheap way of playing games.
As well as freeware/shareware games, there are also online games that can be played for free, which vary from single-player games such as Space Invaders to 2-player games like Chess to multiplayer games with huge variations in type. Overall there are plenty of free options available that, provided you have free internet access, allow you to quickly find a completely free game to play.
Has anyone else heard of freeloader.com? Basically the site allows you to freely download high quality games, you have to download them in parts and view adverts in order to allow you to do this but it is a completely free way of getting games. While many of the games here you will not have really heard of others, like Grand Theft Auto 2, are ones that you will have and most of the games here are at least worth a look even if you wouldn't actually spend money on them.
PC's also have abandonware and emulation, both of which are not strictly legal but are not so against the law that many people really consider them illegal. Abandonware are games that are no longer being produced and that various sites will allow you to freely download, as these games were actually sold at some time. Doing this isn't completely legal, but because there is no way for the people who originally made the games to further benefit from them (unless they were re-released), I personally consider downloading these games fine. Same with emulation, while I personally would consider N64/Playstation/Dreamcast emulation fairly illegal because these consoles are still in general release and easily available, I don't object at all to older consoles being emulated and feeling the ability to play many of the old games from a SNES/Megadrive/NES/Master System/Game Gear/etc is a great feature of a PC and as many of these games are still extremely fun to play and this provides a very cheap alternative.
Conclusion
I would say that the cost of gaming upon initial release is high, especially for consoles. Console games seem to be around 50% higher than PC games upon release, even if it's the exact same game. For this reason I would personally advise anyone who wants to get the best value from their games to wait a while - most games will come down in price quite rapidly and while it may be a bit annoying to not own a game you really want to play you will save money by waiting.
In terms of PC costs, there are plenty of free alternatives that can be downloaded/accessed over the internet, freeware/shareware/abandonware/emulation and all provide fun games that won't cost you a penny - if you are short of money and want something to play, these are all worth a look.
Overall I would say you get what you pay for - if you want the newest game on the day of release, it's going to cost you a lot. If however you are willing to wait a while, you can get the exact same game for 1/2-1/4 of the price.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.
funkygamer wrote:
Yes, development companies do spend a lot time and money making these games,
> but half the people who play them never spend enough time on them to complete
> them.
Is there an argument for developers reducing costs by reducing the size
> and scope of games?
I dont complete games if i get bored of them.
I do complete games that I realy enjoy.
A game would have to be shortened depending on the playability, and if its really good, make it longer, and if it not so good make it shorter.
We would then have long games are good, short games are bad idea.
Kuri Kuri Mix is a wicked little game but it is very short, so short that you can complete it and return it for a full refund at EB.
Yes, development companies do spend a lot time and money making these games,
> but half the people who play them never spend enough time on them to complete
> them.
Is there an argument for developers reducing costs by reducing the size
> and scope of games?
I dont complete games if i get bored of them.
I do complete games that I realy enjoy.
A game would have to be shortened depending on the playability, and if its really good, make it longer, and if it not so good make it shorter.
We would then have long games are good, short games are bad idea.
Kuri Kuri Mix is a wicked little game but it is very short, so short that you can complete it and return it for a full refund at EB.
Leftback wrote:
>Games costs may have risen but it is in line with the
> development time and the huge investment games firms put into the games.
Yes, development companies do spend a lot time and money making these games, but half the people who play them never spend enough time on them to complete them.
Is there an argument for developers reducing costs by reducing the size and scope of games?
>Games costs may have risen but it is in line with the
> development time and the huge investment games firms put into the games.
Yes, development companies do spend a lot time and money making these games, but half the people who play them never spend enough time on them to complete them.
Is there an argument for developers reducing costs by reducing the size and scope of games?
relative to older systems gaming is cheaper now.
You can pay the same price now for a new more powerfull console as you would have done for an older console upon its release.Games costs may have risen but it is in line with the development time and the huge investment games firms put into the games. Newer inexpensive technology makes this possible.
You can pay the same price now for a new more powerfull console as you would have done for an older console upon its release.Games costs may have risen but it is in line with the development time and the huge investment games firms put into the games. Newer inexpensive technology makes this possible.
Interesting point, I agree, it would be great if I could manage to stay one year behind on everything, but if you want it you have to pay for it.
I have another idea for those that don't have loads of money to spend on games....
* be very selective about the game you buy *
thats it, I can't understand buying all the games that come out, I'd never have time to play any properly, and therefore not getting the best value for money out of them.
Also trading games (like wot EB do) is a great way to save money, play the game, take it in and get some money back for it, then buy it back again a year later when its on budget.
IDEA - Maybe SR would startup an exchange program? where by they give you half the selling price for the game off your next purchase.
I have another idea for those that don't have loads of money to spend on games....
* be very selective about the game you buy *
thats it, I can't understand buying all the games that come out, I'd never have time to play any properly, and therefore not getting the best value for money out of them.
Also trading games (like wot EB do) is a great way to save money, play the game, take it in and get some money back for it, then buy it back again a year later when its on budget.
IDEA - Maybe SR would startup an exchange program? where by they give you half the selling price for the game off your next purchase.
It's fair to say that anyone wanting to play the latest games will have to spend a lot of money to do this, however no one is forcing them to and there are lots of alternatives for people to use.
The past
Past prices were definetely lower, but as the prices of most things increase I don't think this is completely bad. One example is the box for Monkey Island 2 I came across the other day. Rather than the £30 a new PC game would cost now, it cost £16.99 and for a PC game at the time I considered this fairly expensive (although cheap compared to SNES games). Further back in time I remember buying spectrum games for less than £5 that probably provided me with as much enjoyment as a lot of the games I buy now.
Of course not all game prices have increased, some console game prices have stayed about the same or even decreased. An example of this that I can think of is when Street Fighter 2 Turbo was released for the SNES at a cost of £60. Being a big fan of the streetfighter games (and stupid) I bought this almost straight away, a few week later it was being sold for £40, annoying but it does show that some prices have lowered (if only slightly).
Consoles
When a console comes out it seems to be at quite a high price, games for the console are also fairly expensive and as the console is new there is no option to buy second-hand for quite a while. Considering the cost of getting the newest console, a few games and a few control pads would cost you quite a few hundred pounds - this is quite an expensive option.
However, if you are patient, the costs of these consoles can be reduced radically, especially if you are willing to buy second-hand. Considering this option is usually available less than a year after the console is released, it is not that long a wait, however there is no denying that the desire to own the latest console means that this wait can seem a lot longer.
Console games, on release, seem to generally be more expensive than PC games, however after they've been out a while, the prices can go down quite a bit. A game may come out at around £50 and within a few years only cost you £10, however the popularity of the game itself seems to be quite a factor in this. A very popular game may remain for sale at full price for quite a long time as the demand for the game is still there (Goldeneye), however even with these games you will often be able to pick up a cheap second-hand copy.
Overall I would say that anyone concerned about the cost of gaming who wants to own a console should wait a year or so for the console to come down in price and then try and only buy games when they have been out a while and also come down in price. Initially the costs can be very high and unless you wait the console and games you want will cost you a lot of money.
Of course, for anyone who doesn't mind older consoles, ones such as a SNES or Megadrive can be picked up extremely cheaply (£10-£20) and games for them will cost you between £5-£10 (probably cheaper if you can find someone wanting to sell a console and lots of games together or a dealer). These old consoles are still extremely fun to play and this is a great cheap way of owning a console if you really want one but don't feel you can afford any of the newer ones.
PC's
The initial cost of a PC can be high, however most PC's will also have a longer lifetime than most consoles. Many people seem to have the impression that they need the most powerful PC available, however you can save quite a lot of money if you buy something that will do everything you need rather than just go for impressive numbers. At the moment, for most people, the most powerful PC will provide hardly any extra performance than a much more reasonably priced one. Even when buying a reasonably priced PC for gaming you will still be spending a lot more money than you would on any console, so if gaming is all you want, a PC may be the wrong way to go.
Games tend to be released at about £30 although this does vary a bit from game to game (for example Black & White was on general release at £35 and Worms World Party at £20). After these have been out a few months, unless they are really popular, you can usually find them for sale for around £20, a year or so after this and they will have dropped to £10. Basically, the longer you are willing to wait, the cheaper the game will get. Personally I tend to buy games at various prices depending on how much I want them, Black & White I paid the full £30 for wheras Unreal Tournament, I waited until it cost £10. If you can't afford to buy a game upon release then the only real option is to wait (or hope for a good offer somewhere).
I am unsure as to whether prices are too high, considering the life of many games they seem to be reasonable value for money, especially when compared to the price of a new hardback book that might be read only once or a DVD that someone might only watch a few times. Many people seem to simply be feel they "need" to buy a game upon release and yet if they say the exact same game on budget might not even care about buying it. I would personally say that PC games prices are fair and they reduce in price rapidly enough to give people the option of waiting.
Of course there are cheaper alternatives to buying a game if you own a PC, the number of shareware and freeware games that can be downloaded for free is quite impressive. While most of these games will in general be of a lower quality than general release games, there are some really good quality games that can be downloaded and provide hours of (free entertainment). Considering these options are free (unless you decide to support the author) it is a very cheap way of playing games.
As well as freeware/shareware games, there are also online games that can be played for free, which vary from single-player games such as Space Invaders to 2-player games like Chess to multiplayer games with huge variations in type. Overall there are plenty of free options available that, provided you have free internet access, allow you to quickly find a completely free game to play.
Has anyone else heard of freeloader.com? Basically the site allows you to freely download high quality games, you have to download them in parts and view adverts in order to allow you to do this but it is a completely free way of getting games. While many of the games here you will not have really heard of others, like Grand Theft Auto 2, are ones that you will have and most of the games here are at least worth a look even if you wouldn't actually spend money on them.
PC's also have abandonware and emulation, both of which are not strictly legal but are not so against the law that many people really consider them illegal. Abandonware are games that are no longer being produced and that various sites will allow you to freely download, as these games were actually sold at some time. Doing this isn't completely legal, but because there is no way for the people who originally made the games to further benefit from them (unless they were re-released), I personally consider downloading these games fine. Same with emulation, while I personally would consider N64/Playstation/Dreamcast emulation fairly illegal because these consoles are still in general release and easily available, I don't object at all to older consoles being emulated and feeling the ability to play many of the old games from a SNES/Megadrive/NES/Master System/Game Gear/etc is a great feature of a PC and as many of these games are still extremely fun to play and this provides a very cheap alternative.
Conclusion
I would say that the cost of gaming upon initial release is high, especially for consoles. Console games seem to be around 50% higher than PC games upon release, even if it's the exact same game. For this reason I would personally advise anyone who wants to get the best value from their games to wait a while - most games will come down in price quite rapidly and while it may be a bit annoying to not own a game you really want to play you will save money by waiting.
In terms of PC costs, there are plenty of free alternatives that can be downloaded/accessed over the internet, freeware/shareware/abandonware/emulation and all provide fun games that won't cost you a penny - if you are short of money and want something to play, these are all worth a look.
Overall I would say you get what you pay for - if you want the newest game on the day of release, it's going to cost you a lot. If however you are willing to wait a while, you can get the exact same game for 1/2-1/4 of the price.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.
The past
Past prices were definetely lower, but as the prices of most things increase I don't think this is completely bad. One example is the box for Monkey Island 2 I came across the other day. Rather than the £30 a new PC game would cost now, it cost £16.99 and for a PC game at the time I considered this fairly expensive (although cheap compared to SNES games). Further back in time I remember buying spectrum games for less than £5 that probably provided me with as much enjoyment as a lot of the games I buy now.
Of course not all game prices have increased, some console game prices have stayed about the same or even decreased. An example of this that I can think of is when Street Fighter 2 Turbo was released for the SNES at a cost of £60. Being a big fan of the streetfighter games (and stupid) I bought this almost straight away, a few week later it was being sold for £40, annoying but it does show that some prices have lowered (if only slightly).
Consoles
When a console comes out it seems to be at quite a high price, games for the console are also fairly expensive and as the console is new there is no option to buy second-hand for quite a while. Considering the cost of getting the newest console, a few games and a few control pads would cost you quite a few hundred pounds - this is quite an expensive option.
However, if you are patient, the costs of these consoles can be reduced radically, especially if you are willing to buy second-hand. Considering this option is usually available less than a year after the console is released, it is not that long a wait, however there is no denying that the desire to own the latest console means that this wait can seem a lot longer.
Console games, on release, seem to generally be more expensive than PC games, however after they've been out a while, the prices can go down quite a bit. A game may come out at around £50 and within a few years only cost you £10, however the popularity of the game itself seems to be quite a factor in this. A very popular game may remain for sale at full price for quite a long time as the demand for the game is still there (Goldeneye), however even with these games you will often be able to pick up a cheap second-hand copy.
Overall I would say that anyone concerned about the cost of gaming who wants to own a console should wait a year or so for the console to come down in price and then try and only buy games when they have been out a while and also come down in price. Initially the costs can be very high and unless you wait the console and games you want will cost you a lot of money.
Of course, for anyone who doesn't mind older consoles, ones such as a SNES or Megadrive can be picked up extremely cheaply (£10-£20) and games for them will cost you between £5-£10 (probably cheaper if you can find someone wanting to sell a console and lots of games together or a dealer). These old consoles are still extremely fun to play and this is a great cheap way of owning a console if you really want one but don't feel you can afford any of the newer ones.
PC's
The initial cost of a PC can be high, however most PC's will also have a longer lifetime than most consoles. Many people seem to have the impression that they need the most powerful PC available, however you can save quite a lot of money if you buy something that will do everything you need rather than just go for impressive numbers. At the moment, for most people, the most powerful PC will provide hardly any extra performance than a much more reasonably priced one. Even when buying a reasonably priced PC for gaming you will still be spending a lot more money than you would on any console, so if gaming is all you want, a PC may be the wrong way to go.
Games tend to be released at about £30 although this does vary a bit from game to game (for example Black & White was on general release at £35 and Worms World Party at £20). After these have been out a few months, unless they are really popular, you can usually find them for sale for around £20, a year or so after this and they will have dropped to £10. Basically, the longer you are willing to wait, the cheaper the game will get. Personally I tend to buy games at various prices depending on how much I want them, Black & White I paid the full £30 for wheras Unreal Tournament, I waited until it cost £10. If you can't afford to buy a game upon release then the only real option is to wait (or hope for a good offer somewhere).
I am unsure as to whether prices are too high, considering the life of many games they seem to be reasonable value for money, especially when compared to the price of a new hardback book that might be read only once or a DVD that someone might only watch a few times. Many people seem to simply be feel they "need" to buy a game upon release and yet if they say the exact same game on budget might not even care about buying it. I would personally say that PC games prices are fair and they reduce in price rapidly enough to give people the option of waiting.
Of course there are cheaper alternatives to buying a game if you own a PC, the number of shareware and freeware games that can be downloaded for free is quite impressive. While most of these games will in general be of a lower quality than general release games, there are some really good quality games that can be downloaded and provide hours of (free entertainment). Considering these options are free (unless you decide to support the author) it is a very cheap way of playing games.
As well as freeware/shareware games, there are also online games that can be played for free, which vary from single-player games such as Space Invaders to 2-player games like Chess to multiplayer games with huge variations in type. Overall there are plenty of free options available that, provided you have free internet access, allow you to quickly find a completely free game to play.
Has anyone else heard of freeloader.com? Basically the site allows you to freely download high quality games, you have to download them in parts and view adverts in order to allow you to do this but it is a completely free way of getting games. While many of the games here you will not have really heard of others, like Grand Theft Auto 2, are ones that you will have and most of the games here are at least worth a look even if you wouldn't actually spend money on them.
PC's also have abandonware and emulation, both of which are not strictly legal but are not so against the law that many people really consider them illegal. Abandonware are games that are no longer being produced and that various sites will allow you to freely download, as these games were actually sold at some time. Doing this isn't completely legal, but because there is no way for the people who originally made the games to further benefit from them (unless they were re-released), I personally consider downloading these games fine. Same with emulation, while I personally would consider N64/Playstation/Dreamcast emulation fairly illegal because these consoles are still in general release and easily available, I don't object at all to older consoles being emulated and feeling the ability to play many of the old games from a SNES/Megadrive/NES/Master System/Game Gear/etc is a great feature of a PC and as many of these games are still extremely fun to play and this provides a very cheap alternative.
Conclusion
I would say that the cost of gaming upon initial release is high, especially for consoles. Console games seem to be around 50% higher than PC games upon release, even if it's the exact same game. For this reason I would personally advise anyone who wants to get the best value from their games to wait a while - most games will come down in price quite rapidly and while it may be a bit annoying to not own a game you really want to play you will save money by waiting.
In terms of PC costs, there are plenty of free alternatives that can be downloaded/accessed over the internet, freeware/shareware/abandonware/emulation and all provide fun games that won't cost you a penny - if you are short of money and want something to play, these are all worth a look.
Overall I would say you get what you pay for - if you want the newest game on the day of release, it's going to cost you a lot. If however you are willing to wait a while, you can get the exact same game for 1/2-1/4 of the price.
Thanks for reading.
Firebalt.