I know I'm not going to solve the console vs pc war, but I have played many games on the pc and I liked them, but as time moved on I had to keep upgrading, dealing with viruses, and etc etc. The game play would be great and it would be fun, but overall not worth the hassle (imo).

I got a playstation no hassle cheap played just below the pc games for a bit still preferred pc at the time. Ps2 came out just below pc not as great graphics and mumbo jumbo yet performed well and I preferred it over pc because of the price and began to abandon pc gaming outside mmos.

Then the ps3 it was simple nearly the same as a pc but cheaper (eventually). Ps4 just below pc's yet can now play pc games. When it gets to the nitty gritty truth ps4 is better for a gamer whom wants a cheap, simple, and reliable system. PC needs constant maintenance and care to keep it up to speed.
I'm neither a console or pc elitist for I have a pc Ps2 ps3 ps4 and super nes ( my fav), but I understand economics and the truth is consoles are cheaper and simpler which is why more people favor it. My two isk on the situation

I love ps plus has gotten me many big name games for free ^_^

Now here comes the lies:

Steam is cheaper (it is not, you suck at shopping)
PC is cheaper (hell it cost as much in electricity every year as it cost me to have PSPlus)
You have to pay for online (free online from electricty savings)
You don't need a lot of maintenance (yes you do, after 6 months yes you do.)

1. Steam sales are a great way to save money on games. Piracy is even more cost-effective, though illegal.

2. No one said PC is cheaper.

3. Consoles use electricity, too. If you don't want your PC to use as much electricity, turn it off. Most PCs only use around 54kWh of power per month when idle, which only amounts to around seven dollars for the average person in the United States, and significantly less than that when off or in standby mode. It's really not much. Only around two dollars more expensive per month than running an idle PS4 with a PSPlus yearly subscription. It's actually cheaper than with a PSPlus monthly subscription.

4. I've had my computer since 2009 (give or take a year) and the only maintenance I've had to perform on it was replacing the hard drive. Wasn't even upset about it, since my old hard drive was almost completely filled anyway and I needed a larger one. Never had any malware problems on it, either.

So on point three. PS4 takes ~ 170 watts under a full gaming load.

a comparible PC will take ~250 watts for 7870 GPU (low balling from numerous web sources), an AMD Opteron 6128 ( 8 cores @ 2 ghz) CPU takes 115 W, MB between 25-40 (VERY CONSERVATIVE), HDD ~12 watts, ram~4-8 watts. We will disregard disc drive and fans as "error", this puts the total power draw at 406-429 watts using extremely conservative estimates.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the above computer, even with subbing in a much cheaper CPU, will cost quite a bit more than the PS4, especially if you include the blurray drive and the required software to play movies. Just FYI.

Lets say 15 cents per KWh and 3 hours of gaming per day.

0.15*.406=$0.0609 for the PC per hour of use

0.15*.170=$0.0255 for the PS4 per hour of use

1 year of PC use = $66.69
1 year of PS4 use = $27.93

PsPlus goes on sale for $30 at least once a year. Right there you just got free PsPlus (and 24-36 free good-great games) just for saving energy.

If you use an actual decked out gaming PC, well you are going to be spending $100+ a year over the PS4 just in electricity.

Now lets not talk about things we don't know about anynore eh?

HDD wipe and OS,driver,game, whatever reinstall is something most users do every year, just to keep running at optimal efficiency (i.e. windows does/or at least used to slow down over time)

EDIT: Oh yeah.. 1 year of a PS3 on standbye @ 8 watts?

That is $10.512.

Tom's hardware did a 7870 machine test

The computer, at full idle after 10 minutes, with the display shut off, still takes 1 more watt than the PS4 takes when you are sitting there navigating the menus.

Oh using your 54KWh per month for idle power....

Thats $97.20 per year.

He's right about the power usage, but also, considering you only save about $40 per year by his calculations, that's less than the discount on one Steam game, and those go into deep sales twice a year.

Oh using your 54KWh per month for idle power....

Thats $97.20 per year.

The national average for those in the United States is around 10-12 cents per kWh. That's around $71.28 per year.

Even so, $97.20 dollars per year isn't even that significant. The $45-75 dollars you'll pay for a PS4's electricity cost and PSPlus subscription fee is pretty damn close to that ($65-75 if you don't want to wait for a PSPlus sale).

I'm not saying the PC isn't more expensive. In a lot of ways, it is. But it's not that much more expensive.

In the end, using a console is always going to be more cost efficient. You as a gamer have to figure out whether or not that even matters, and if the genres you enjoy are worth following for yourself.

I have to agree. Consoles benefit from a lot of things that PCs don't. They can cut out what isn't necessary for gaming, they benefit greatly from economies of scale and console games don't have to cope with multiple different specs, just one for each release.

In the end, the best choice really comes down to what people want out of their system, and whether or not the extra cost of a gaming PC is worth it. I have nothing against consoles; it's just that I want more than what they offer.