The desktop I'm using now is 5 years old. It struggles through some of the very intensive games out there today, but with small changes (upgrading my RAM and video card - cost me under $100) it runs much better.

Oh, I agree that you can get a data connection pretty much anywhere in the world these days, given all the satellites. However, cost is another issue and the predominant barrier to access these days.


I don't know - I lived in Calgary for about 8 months and I remember that broadband plans were not all unlimited access - most seemed to have a cap. Is that different these days? The cost was not much more expensive compared to plans in the US for example, but definitely cheaper than in Europe.

The other thing is, we tend to take internet pretty much for granted as a living expense. But for most people, broadband is still fairly expensive - the cheapest plans in the US run around $30/month, but it's more expensive pretty much everywhere else in the world (by cost of living standards at least). Even in Mumbai, India pretty crappy service converts to about $30/month, which is much, much more expensive in cost-of-living terms.

There are still people who like to play video games for the single player aspect and would rather not pay for an internet connection.