Bloomberg writer Jennifer Price estimates the ‘Real Cost’ of gaming at over $17,000. Seriously.
Bloomberg’s ‘Real Cost’ guides have always been, at heart, a rather amusing ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach to dealing with specific situations – but there’s always been a core of sound, logical advice to some degree. However, a recent article by contibutor Jennifer Price has kicked the hornet’s nest with an amazingly over-inflated look at gaming consumer culture. $17,077, to be exact.
Estimating the cost of a family of four becoming gamers, the list manages to cover all the bases (consoles, games, TV & sound systems, etc), but also manages to throw money away in spectacular fashion in the process. Most notably, Price puts PC gaming as one of the most expensive aspects of the whole venture, pricing a Digital Storm tower with Blu-Ray functionality at £3,333, only second to the punch-yourself-in-the-face-it’s-so-ludicrous $4,800 for a 60-inch 3D LED-LCD television.
Normally, this would just pass as a slightly over-the-top extravagance that some people may splurge on, but setting this as the ‘real cost’ of gaming is akin to buying a Lamborghini Gallardo for the daily school run. It’s simply not consistent with what the real majority of gamers make do with on a daily basis.
The article has already generated a significant amount of criticism from users on the site, pointing out inaccuracies within the article, such as Price quoting Kill Screen Magazine founder Jamin Warren that some PC users ‘often soup up systems by adding motherboards’, or, more commonly, stating that the purchases made are both needless and frivolously expensive. In truth, many gamers make do with what they can – and articles like these, suggesting that gaming is a money-vaccuum, aren’t even close to the truth.
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This is ludicrous in the extreme, and they also seem to be assuming that one doesn’t shop around for the items. A quick search of amazon.com shows the keyboard to be $10 cheaper than their listed price, and the mouse to be £32 cheaper. The fact that they suggest a $33 HDMI Monster Cable (demonstrably no better than a $5 bargain-basement cable) further supports the fact that this article was written by someone who had no idea what they’re talking about.
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sqrrl101 (January 31st, 2012)
I guess if you’re spending that much money then a couple of quid here and there probably isn’t going to bother you.
Actually, a lot of the stuff in that article makes more sense if it was written by one of those people who buy overpriced ‘high-end’ cables – it cost 5 times as much, that makes it 5 times better!
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Volente (January 31st, 2012)