[citation][nom]kawininjazx[/nom]This is why consoles are more popular: Buy a $400 XBox, plays all the games perfect for seven years or so. Buy $1200 PC, upgrades every 3 years, and there is no guarantee the game will run after you install it. As superior as PC gaming is, you have to have a bigger wallet and more tech knowledge. I work on PCs 45 hours a week and even my co-worker couldn't get L4D2 or Gotham City Imposters to run right on his PC, even after hours of research. The two games run fine on my PC which has a slower video card.[/citation]
Not really true when the new one releases. Look at the $650 March 2012 SBM - it runs most things on high at 60fps on 1080p. Imagine it's Q4 2014. Broadwell will be released (the shrink of the 2013 architecture, if IB is supposed to be 10-15%+ on SB, I don't think a 50% performance increase is out of the question),a new gen of graphics cards will be released (Maxwell/AMD's offering, GTX 8XX's/HD 9XXX's?), insanely cheap DDR3/new DDR4, HDD's will be half the price/back to pre-flood (the 500GB in the SBM was $85, it was $40 Sept 2011). The GPU prices should now be down a bit compared to release (7XXX price drops recently, possibly more by Q4, could be similar in the future).
Now, the 360 was $400 release. We'll probably see the same price for the new console, possibly up to $500 (bundles of some sort). If the rumoured specs are true (~6670 GPU), you'll be able to build a significantly more powerful PC that plays games at 1080p, 60fps on high for the same price. With the Steam sale (50-75% off!) giving you massively better value games. With the additions of a new controller (average number of controllers per console?), p2p online, more expensive games in general.... I can't see why you'd get it over a new PC if you knew how to do it, other than split-screen fun and possibly more more friends using it but at the end of the day, it's a PC. You can do so much more with it.
I'm not saying 'console sucks pc master race' or anything (I was a consoler until '06), it's just that they usually had a good value advantage so it's the obvious choice. Next gen? With all the tech increases, I can't see it, or am I just derping?