I’m not sure how you arrive at that conclusion, “most people already have a TV so it’s not considered an additional purchase, a computer monitor almost always is.”
If you put yourself in the shoes of an average parent Christmas shopping for their 9 year old at some point in the last 30 years, well there’s a Playstation 2 for $299, a controller is included, a memory card is $40, and then we’ll buy 3 games for $60 each, so that’s about $520. We’ll hook it up to the living room TV we already own, it comes with the cable we need to do that, that’s all we need to buy. Or, let’s go over to the computer store and buy a gaming PC. We chose the PS2 era so ~2002, we’re looking at a Windows XP machine with probably a Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 256GB hard drive, a CD-RW drive and a DVD-ROM drive, plus an earlier Nvidia graphics card. Buy it from HP, Compaq, Dell or someone like that, you’re probably looking at $800 to $1000 for the PC itself, then you’re going to need to buy a computer monitor because the graphics card probably only has VGA out and your TV doesn’t have VGA in, so that’s another few hundred bucks you’re going to spend. It likely ships with a basic keyboard and mouse so you’ll get by with those.
Here’s a picture of a computer catalog circa 2000 of Pentium III grade systems advertising prices just shy of $1500 AFTER a $500 discount for a complete desktop setup, probably including the OS and probably some shovelware. And now it’s time to buy some games.
So if you started with the Playstation, you’d have to spend a thousand dollars on a television before you broke even on cost with an equivalent era gaming PC and accoutrements. Oh and you’re going to have to set up the OS and install the games you buy from CD, which has a chance of just not working at all because Windows is flaky. Oh no, that Windows 98 era game that’s still on store shelves in 2002 doesn’t work on Windows XP because of something called NT, you don’t know what that means and little Joshua is pissed. Maybe I should have just bought him a Furby.
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That said, I am a PC gamer, in fact I’m a Linux gamer. I’m typing this on my Ryzen 7700X/Radeon 7900GRE system with a 34 inch 1440p 144Hz monitor and 5.1 surround sound system. I play some hardware intensive games like Satisfactory, I also do my CAD design work on this box. It’s a vastly superior toy to any game console ever made and it’s also a profoundly useful tool.
I felt the need to reach back to the PS2 era because I don’t believe the current crop of game consoles offers the same value proposition. As I think you’re trying to point out, TV and movies nowadays are fucktrash and people are abandoning them, and it’s increasingly likely you don’t own a TV at all because why? The consoles are getting more expensive even though they are still sold as loss leaders, and their making everything they can into a subscription, they’re gonna wring the cash out of you somehow.
If someone with no AV equipment at all asked ME how to get into PC gaming, I’m gonna recommend a Steam Deck. It’s got everything you need to start playing, no accessories required, excellent UX, repairable hardware, can run LibreOffice, you can plug it into a monitor or television when/if you get one, and you don’t have to be a lizard people oligarch to afford it. Oh and at this exact moment in history it isn’t the flickering stub of a once tall candle with its successor waiting in the wings like the Nintendo Switch.
I’m not sure how you arrive at that conclusion, “most people already have a TV so it’s not considered an additional purchase, a computer monitor almost always is.”
If you put yourself in the shoes of an average parent Christmas shopping for their 9 year old at some point in the last 30 years, well there’s a Playstation 2 for $299, a controller is included, a memory card is $40, and then we’ll buy 3 games for $60 each, so that’s about $520. We’ll hook it up to the living room TV we already own, it comes with the cable we need to do that, that’s all we need to buy. Or, let’s go over to the computer store and buy a gaming PC. We chose the PS2 era so ~2002, we’re looking at a Windows XP machine with probably a Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 256GB hard drive, a CD-RW drive and a DVD-ROM drive, plus an earlier Nvidia graphics card. Buy it from HP, Compaq, Dell or someone like that, you’re probably looking at $800 to $1000 for the PC itself, then you’re going to need to buy a computer monitor because the graphics card probably only has VGA out and your TV doesn’t have VGA in, so that’s another few hundred bucks you’re going to spend. It likely ships with a basic keyboard and mouse so you’ll get by with those.
Here’s a picture of a computer catalog circa 2000 of Pentium III grade systems advertising prices just shy of $1500 AFTER a $500 discount for a complete desktop setup, probably including the OS and probably some shovelware. And now it’s time to buy some games.
So if you started with the Playstation, you’d have to spend a thousand dollars on a television before you broke even on cost with an equivalent era gaming PC and accoutrements. Oh and you’re going to have to set up the OS and install the games you buy from CD, which has a chance of just not working at all because Windows is flaky. Oh no, that Windows 98 era game that’s still on store shelves in 2002 doesn’t work on Windows XP because of something called NT, you don’t know what that means and little Joshua is pissed. Maybe I should have just bought him a Furby.
===
That said, I am a PC gamer, in fact I’m a Linux gamer. I’m typing this on my Ryzen 7700X/Radeon 7900GRE system with a 34 inch 1440p 144Hz monitor and 5.1 surround sound system. I play some hardware intensive games like Satisfactory, I also do my CAD design work on this box. It’s a vastly superior toy to any game console ever made and it’s also a profoundly useful tool.
I felt the need to reach back to the PS2 era because I don’t believe the current crop of game consoles offers the same value proposition. As I think you’re trying to point out, TV and movies nowadays are fucktrash and people are abandoning them, and it’s increasingly likely you don’t own a TV at all because why? The consoles are getting more expensive even though they are still sold as loss leaders, and their making everything they can into a subscription, they’re gonna wring the cash out of you somehow.
If someone with no AV equipment at all asked ME how to get into PC gaming, I’m gonna recommend a Steam Deck. It’s got everything you need to start playing, no accessories required, excellent UX, repairable hardware, can run LibreOffice, you can plug it into a monitor or television when/if you get one, and you don’t have to be a lizard people oligarch to afford it. Oh and at this exact moment in history it isn’t the flickering stub of a once tall candle with its successor waiting in the wings like the Nintendo Switch.