I became a PC gamer in 2001, that was when I first got a pc at home.

Back then it wasn't uncommon to walk into a normal franchise game store in my case it was the UK "GAME" and often pay as little as £5 or even less for a PC title of only a year or two's age.

I would look upon the shelves and see the latest games priced at £30, with £15 for other games littered around them. PC games come out in the UK at full price at £30 in most cases still to this day.

Playsation 2 came out and consoles games were £40 the same as they are now, which for Americans is $60 and what they have been used to for 10 years.

2004

2004 comes and the Xbox original is out for a while and I buy that to make up for my failing pc.

At this same time Valve creates steam. Half life 2 is released on it.

So naturally It was easier to buy some random PC game. So come 2005 I have a stack of Jewel cases of pc games, this is the time they shifted to more console like boxes. I have also acquired a stack of PS2 games, mostly with pre owned stickers on them.

New computer and now I am acquiring a stack of Console like cases for pc along my side wall. Still mostly snagging them from anything between 99p to full price £30. I put my jewel cases in the cupboard.

At this time I have 150 odd pc games, vs my 40 PS2 and 20 Xbox games. PC games have been super cheap to buy finding some weird and cool gems.

My friends have found out about mods (I know late to the party) so we exchange PC gamer discs to get the mod to play Team Fortress 1. I have Half life 1 why not, do it and have a blast and explore more mods.

2006

My computer wouldn't run the demo so I never looked at Half life 2 for years. It was till about 2006 that my friends jump from Day fo defeat and Counter strike to the source versions.

I was first introduced to steam this way. I bought Day of defeat and Counter strike on disc after messing around trying to use the one copy of Half life 2 my friend had and learned about how CD keys worked Installed on steam and played away happily.

2008

2008 comes and I have not used steam aside from playing DOD CS or Half life 1 mods. I am walking into game shops and hunting for PC games, they are getting rarer and rare.

I am still buying PC games from 99p to £30 and ps2 games from £5 to £40.

I get a 360 and it then becomes my main game platform....as my pc has died.

Without a pc for 3 years I devoted to the xbox of course. Buying games from £40 to £45 until used games for it are more common so its more like £15 to £40.

2010

I raised the money and bought a new pc in late 2010. I then started my old raids on game shops hoping Pc games were more common there wasn't any aside from the top 10 new releases.

I was introduced to what Steam since the start of 2011 to today. I have 185 pc games on my steam library I have 60 odd console cased pc games in my cupboard with 150 jewel cases. Paying anything between 99p to £30. I look in shops and find only the latest pc games that are not on the shelf for long.

My dad want Shogun total war 2. I could just download from steam but Game has some preorder deals and I decided to snag that for my dad. My dad also is pretty against Steam as he wants his own account and not use mine. So I buy it on disc get home have him install it.

As usual Cd key and stuff.....except...it says "install steam." I then take over the install process and we realise the only way to install it is to hook it to steam. We do so and my dad isnt too happy he has played 300 hours of Shogun 2 since....so in the end he is happy.

My dad sees me playing mount and blade warband, we played and enjoyed the first Mount and Blade. So he buys the game himself as he rather not use steam and installs it.....enter Cd Key into steam to use the install.

It is now the stage that any pc game we buy you MUST use steam.

PC games in store is dead. Why? because shops even stopped stocking them before steam. and consoles NEED discs. Stores are the ONLY place to get them. So stores sacrificed PC games for consoles and its worked for them. PC had been fighting piracy for so long (the commadore 64 and Dos had you enter codes only found in manuals meaning no manual no game) so its not impossible to deal in used games.

Due to retailers apparent dislike for PC games sitting around at all I snagged BF3 premium edition for £10 since the store just wanted rid of it. Even now Origin has the whole package for £40

360 has 3 more years of life till the Xbox one. In that time I have bought games primarily at the prices of £15 to £60 with £40 being normal prices.

2013

So we come to today. Microsoft has denounced its DRM plans and the Xbox one has became a viable option to a lot of people. Steam is doing early access and greenlight with the same sales in between it all.

We have Green man gaming, we have Good old games, we have origin, we have ubisoft. We have dev fighting this all and only selling on their site at comparable prices.

People who were onboard with Microsoft before this are now shouting at those who rallied for DRM to be destroyed for killing the progressive stuff Microsoft was working on. Game sharing, digital trading.

That sounds cool and it would be.....we could trust Microsoft not to rip us off.

The same people cite steam as the example on how it would work......it wont work that way....this is consoles.

Closed system is how the console operates, console game prices dont change all that much unless it was a flop. Even then it can still be full price years after release, its mainly only used games that have the larger discount to them.

I have been buying all manner of quality in PC games from as little 99p to £30 for the last decade. I have not had the same even with used games on consoles.

Consoles and PC's this gen may be the closest they have been to being the same in hardware......but not in how they operate. They are still massively different.