The main reason is cost of the computer. To get the newest console (360 or ps3) is 200-300$. To get a nice PC that plays the games at the same level, is like 800$. Now, lets say you go cheap and get one for 500$, which is not a very nice computer. Thats still a 200$ difference. And the games are 10$ cheaper, so you would have to buy 20 games to make up the difference. Something that someone who buys a cheap computer will probably never do.

Now, you could argue that "Oh well if you build your own computer, it costs much less!" But lets be honest, like 95% of PC gamers have NO CLUE how to do that. How many console gamers could put together their console if the pieces were given to them? Not many. Not to mention that consoles have much less pieces, due to the fact you cant swap out many parts for them.

Also, Microsoft and Sony sell consoles at a loss, as in, for less money than it costs them to make it. They make up for this by getting a % of profit from every console game sold. This is how they make their money. So you guys pay the 10 extra dollars companies charge to cover this % of profit that goes to the other companies.

And; It is Microsoft and Sony that don't allow modding on their consoles, so why should PC gamers have to pay more for that? FOr example; You buy a Ford, and I buy a Chevy. If, based on Chevy company policy, I was not allowed to play certain types/bands of music on the radio in my car, should your Ford car cost more?

But because we have the better technology, they are cheaper. Videogames are cheaper in comparison to the technology used to make them as well. But then you have to remember that videogames aren't all technology either. It doesn't ever get easier to write a story or design a world (and the worlds designed are now more complex) or design gameplay elements. Those things remain hard to do. It's only the technology that improves but as that happens, game developers work just as hard as they did back with the first games in order to best take advantage of and understand the current technology. The same is with computers, except in that area, they have advanced technology far enough that people don't NEED the highest technology pieces. We could still be paying ridiculous prices for computers IF we got the best in the entire world technology. But we don't need that. And once you have that technology, it doesn't need work done like a piece of art. It's simply a utility. Videogames are art and require a lot more. Why do books still cost the same as 20 years ago? Because you'renot paying for the technology as much as you are paying for the art. It can never be easier to create art.

On release day do you think this will be a 50 or 60 dollar game (or over 60, or under 50)? So how much do you think this game will be?

Yep well said. I still won't pay equal price for a download copy though, since all of the savings in distribution are going to the companies involved while charging the customer extra overhead.

I don't think the SNES/Mac compared with the price of things today is a good comparison for one main reason: powerful technology is way cheaper now than it was back then. If you wanted to build a powerful computer in the late 1990s you were going to pay $2,000 or more. Now only overkill computers cost that much and you can easily build a very respectable machine that will likely last you years for $1000 or less. At least on the computer hardware side of things, prices have gone way down.