Why bother buying consoles next gen?

[VAMatt]

Pemalite said:

VAMatt said:

As to your other points, many people choose not to pay for online play (because they don't care about it).  And those that do pay $60 or less per year.  Mid-gen upgrades are not necessary to stay close to the current top-tier.  Gamepass, EA Access, and the like are not exclusive to consoles.  Those costs exist for PC gamers as well, if they want them.  

I have a 12+ year old Core 2 Quad rig (It's a spare system for development/testing/tweaking purposes) that is still capable of playing the latest released games... Can the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 say the same? That system has already lasted longer than a single console generation... You would have to buy multiple consoles to match that rigs life.

Fact of the matter is... PC can have cost advantages over consoles if you take the right approach, it can save you money, especially in the long run, the games are cheaper, the online is free, the peripherals are cheaper... And you don't need the latest and greatest $2,000 rig and nor are you required to upgrade every 6 months.

If you have a 12 year old rig that's playing current games at a reasonably quality, you just have either spent $2500 on it 12 years ago, or spent a grand on it back then, and put a few upgrades in it since.  

But, your point is well taken.  There are some cost savings associated with PC gaming.  I guess I should sit down and do some math sometime to see if the question of which is cheaper can be definitively answered.