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Originally Posted by Crunchy in milk
Prices for PC games may well remain a few bob cheaper than console titles at first release, but they hardly compare to console titles in retention of value on the second hand market.
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Though I agree with rLacey that price is an advantage that the PC has over consoles, it's really the reason PC games is cheaper that is the PC's main advantage as a gaming platform.
The PC is an open platform. That means that anyone can develop games for it and try to have them published - either through traditional means or online. They don't have to buy expensive licenses or developer packs, and they don't have to worry whether the platform holder will accept their game. This again results in a huge variety of games available for the PC that the typical shelves in a games store show only a fraction of. You've got everything from obscure japanese schmups to serious flight sims and wargames. Emulators is also a nice thing (MAME, for instance)...
And even if a game is only available in some parts of the world, you can still import and play it without having to modify your system. I've bought games from Korea (a Metal Slug-compilation), and played them without any problems. I sometimes buy games from the US too.
Controls are also an area where the PC has a major advantage. On the PC, analogue controllers are relatively common (either dedicated USB controllers or PS2 or Xbox-controllers connected to the USB port via a cheap specialized interface). On the other hand, the mouse and keyboard combo is extremely uncommon on consoles. Steering wheels seem more common on the PC as well, though there's a few good ones available for the PS2 (Xbox-wheels suffer because of hardware limitations).
