Laife is good.

My dear friend, you too read what was in your mind, where do I speak of the average consumer???

I do speak of averages, what do you want to compare if you focus on exceptions & anecdotical punctual stories???

If you want to compare, you can only scrutinize the marcket prices of new hardware & software, otherwise I can add all the variables I want in the equation, like do you know how easy it is to download pirated stuff on a PC? Games, movies, music for free all things you can not do with a console, did I mention that you can make your living out of a PC, you can program, stream sexy of yourself shows if you want, etc.  all things that you can't do on a console!!!

The OP is clear, a PC that can give a run to PS4 or X1 for the same price!!!

It's possible, I just added the real costs of a gaming console compared to a gaming PC, since the OP forgot those: cost of software & cost of online playing. Some people in here were outraged that I only considered a 6 years period to do that analyse or 4 games a year! I just did the calculation for 6 years because it's about the life cycle expectancy of a console before the new model comes out, but by all means let's take 10 years & say that an average gamer buys 10 games a year, it only furthers my point: 10 years X $50 on-line fee = $500, $20 of price difference X 10/year = $200, $200/year X 10 years of use = $2000!

There you have it, for a period of 10 years gaming on PS4 or a PC equivalent, you'll spend more $2500 on the PS4! Did I mention that the PC has no backward compability problem? I rest my case, happy new year!

Should have taken the price of Windows 8 off the total...there aren't that many people daft enough to actually pay for the thing when torrents are available lol

I disagree with you, you have to include all the legal stuff you need to have a working system! An OS is part of it & since for gaming Linux is not very viable, Windows is the way to go, I would just say that Windows 7 is cheaper & suits perfectly gaming use.

"My dear friend, you too read what was in your mind, where do I speak of the average consumer???"

Who are you referring to with the following quote if not the average consumer?

"When you annalyse patterns you have to evaluate averages & the most common behaviour, not the minority & unpredictable cases."

Do I have to quote you verbatim because I didn't think that was necessary?

"I do speak of averages, what do you want to compare if you focus on exceptions & anecdotical punctual stories???"

Did you even read my post? Steam represents the average consumer, not "exceptions & anecdotical punctual stories". There are currently eight million people online as I type this participating in the holiday sale. Nobody is buying anything at full price on the largest digital distribution service available on PC, this is the reality of the situation.

Well the average replacement time is 3.5 years beacuse PC gamers have the option, not because they need to upgrade every 3.5 years. Console gamers don't have the upgrade option, and therefore must stay with the same console for 6-10 years. That is why console gamers are so excited when a new console is released. For at least the last 3 years of their platform they've been waiting for an upgrade. That doesn't mean a PC gamer can't keep their PC for 6 years and play the games they want on it. Many PC gamers do accomplish that. It just means that they wish to upgrade and do so because it is an option a console gamer doesn't have. I'm a PC gamer who never is an enthusiast. The last PC I built was in 2008, and then I built my new one this year (I bought a laptop that could play games in between.) My PC's have always been mid-end. The first card for my 2008 PC was a 8600gt, and the last card was a 9800gt (when it was outdated.) I played games on that PC for 5 years. This year I decided I wanted an upgrade. My card is a r9 280x, and my PC cost me $500. I've never met many PC gamers, but the ones I have met don't spend more than $800 on their PC. Now I do plan to upgrade my processor, but I bought a cheap processor in the first place ($55 G3258, cost $100 for it and my z97 motherboard.) 

As for exclusives, the same is entirely true for console gamers. There are Sony gamers who want to play Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. There are Nintendo gamers who want to play Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Ratchet and Clank. Exclusives are found on all platforms. For PC gamers you have exclusives like Starcraft, DOTA, WoW, etc, etc to consider. And there are console gamers who would like to play those games as well (if they have a PC for those games, shouldn't that cost of their PC be added to their gaming budget?) 

- Xbox One costs $350 temporarily. Its real price is $400. And remember to add tax (which you can avoid with buying PC parts online.)

- Yet in Assasin's Creed Unity PS4 drops to 18 fps and maxes at 30fps. For next generation games the PS4 is a low-mid ranged PC build that has the advantage of optimization. 40 fps is fine if you use V-Sync (or the new synchronization methods.) V-sync is something consoles don't have. 

- All current AMD processors have more four cores/threads or more, with vastly higher IPC than the Jaguar and Xbone cpus. Don't even think about comparing CPU speed. The next gen consoles are pathetic in that area. Having 8 threads won't change this. Especially when there are plenty of cheap AMD CPU's with 6 threads, and games have just started to utilize more than two threads. 

- You don't need a Bluray player if you're going to be using it for older dvd/cd games. A $10 external DVD is sufficient for that. But almost all games are available for download anyway. I can't think of a single game you can't find on GOG or Steam that has been released in the last 15 years that you need to buy in disc format. This is a really odd and deceptive argument here. I can't help but think it is you showing intellectual dishonesty. 

- You can always play PC on your TV. In fact I play mine on my TV more than my monitor. My 55 inch TV that is about 5 feet away from me tends to show off blemishes more than my 22 inch monitor two feet away from me though. Plus you can actually play at 1080p resolutions for all games with the comparable cards. On consoles you are stuck with 900p or even slightly more than 720p for some games. 

- No it doesn't. It costs just about the same price today. I already showed previously in this thread that you can have a fully functioning PC for $450 that plays games at the same performance (if not slightly better) as a PS4, and allows you more versatility with framerate and resolution options. 

The reason why its higher priced to buy a game on a console is because of the follow concerning high profile multiplts.

1) Most high profile multiplats are pandering to the console audience because they are the majority who actually pay for them (which is why the franchises have become so big) and also because they have to make their money back for physical copies.

2) On PC you get a digital copy of the game and its riddled with DRM these days. They are throwing you guys a bone. We have to depend on sales and the used market, which is perfectly fine seeing that we console gamers sales are responsible for the quality of multiplats you've become accustomed to.

But...

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-8-1-Full-Version/dp/B00EDSI7QO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420054701&sr=8-1&keywords=WINDOWS+8

thats strange, you can get it in europe for 40...