PC developers do not pay a "console" royality so the games are cheaper.

However, the PC experience is not the same. Sure, you can get free server access -- but you have different servers and different setup for every game. You don't have a centralized achievement system and additional content or features or console. Everything is a one off unless its from the same publisher and you are using the same servers.

I believe everyone is used to getting many things online for free....I believe people are going to be surprised over the next few years as companies looking for revenue and reduce expenses are going to start charging.

You cannot keep expanding content and not charge for it. At the end of the day these companies need to make money or go under.....see how much Sony is in the hole already...money has got to come from either new sources or higher prices especially if the Yen stay high against the dollar.

LOL!

You guys crack me up! Really -- you probably spend more on your freak'n cell phones per month than the $50/yr Sony would charge. If you buy bottled water and if actually figured out how much a gallon you are spending, you could pay for the subscription right there.

How many people go out and spend $60+ on new titles or pay gamefly a monthly fee --- but noooooooo its too much for online play -- please!

You guys want a Mercedes experience but only want to pay used Kia prices....case nobody has noticed....things are getting expensive and you will be paying for a lot more things other than simple online which is a bargin for $50/month.

During our annual hunting trip, I thought the tent was going to get rampaged by a bear....turns out it was a raccoon that had climbed up on a chair outside the tent and the fire made his shadow bigger than he was and I thought it was a bear....scared the ***** out of me!

Late at night after everyone has gone to sleep and i am in my comfy nike sweat suit

BMW Isetta :-)

Nürburgring Nordschleife!!!

Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 24V '98

Gorgous espectially in BTCC trim

I will challenge the whole "for the environment thing'

More bandwidth will be required which mean more electricity, more servers will need to be turned on to handle more demand -- which means more electricity. Larger data centers with more staff -- means more electricity. A blue-ray or DVD player uses less electricity than a Wii.

DVDs and paper can be recyled -- each download requires more electricity!

Meaning, all this IT/digital stuff does more harm than plain old plastic and paper that CAN be reused.

Lets face it, its a convience thing not an environment thing!

The environment my @$$

To those complaining about costs not be reduced...consider the following:

There is a lot of costs that retailer absorb that you never see in the price of the game to being with....which includes none exclusively:

- Floor/Shelf space and the tax on the floor/shelf space
- Inventory management and the people to manage and maintain it
- Tax on the inventory itself
- Loss from theft/damage/returns

The costs that they still have kiosk or not:

- Someone to run the kiosk
- Consumables (ink, paper, CDs, maintenance on the kiosk)
- Additional IT infrastructure and support ot keep that Kiosk going
- Reporting to show that something was actually purchased so that the tax man can get his piece including required audits.

So, they are taking out expenses that the store was eating anyway that was never reflected in the price to begin with -- but the cost of getting that CD to your hand is just about the same but shifted so you pay about the same.

It is the same reason that grocery stores don't charge less for the self check-out. That Apple costs the same self check or using a person.

BUT, how is it that Blu-ray movies are often prices higher than DVD but nobody seems to care? Everyone here is happy to pay more to get soda or snacks from a vending machine, but you guys are ok with that? And we all pay more for a newspaper or magazine at a newstand or store -- but we are all ok with that --- but don't mess with our video games!

@ThePenciler -- these memory units are not authorized third party units. They are reverse engineering hacks. Because they are unauthorized hacks, if something changes on the system, why is the console maker responsible for making unauthorized hacks continue to work in the future.

If you are an authorized third party, that means you have a contract to make sure future changes will not impact you or if they do, you have a chance to make things compatiable.

ALSO, what people are forgetting -- if you are authorized -- you are paying Microsoft or Sony a cut of the sales. If you are not authorized, you are bypassing the royalty thus making the benefit of being authorized diminish. The authorized guys are making money in unfair way so they deserve to get screwed if things change.

DLC is the way of the world because it eliminates distribution and piracy and unauthorized content/accessories. Everyone wants everything to be free without considering that without profit there is no new R&D which means no new products in the future..

Authorized accessories will never go away because the primary company will get a cut of sales.

Making things open does not mean things get any better....if something changes and some third party uses some hack that was not support, who is responsible? The primary console maker or the third party? -- problem is nobody will 100% agree to that answer either. If you agree that the third party is responsible, then the arguments we are having here are also mute -- these are unauthorized memory cards using a hack that was intented to be supported and taking profit away from authorized legit products.

People are P.Od because they payed money for a hack/mod and now want it to work even though there was no guarantee for it to continue to work.

I will argue that the first party stuff is too expensive, I can argue that the 360 HDs should be open to whatever we want to use and the ports should not be proprietary -- as an Xbox 360 user I am with all that -- but in this case -- I don't see a legit argument. The problem is easy, purchase PS3s and once MS sales go down they will get a clue. Each dollar is like a vote but argue what makes sense.