You may prefer a console for the following reasons:-
- The initial cost of a console is much lower than a mid-range gaming PC. Usually, the cost of any current generation console would be just a little more than half the cost of a mid to high end gaming PC.
- As of now, every console supports used games (although this scenario is likely to change soon). So you can just trade in your games for a price after you're done with them, or if you realize that you don't enjoy the game after buying it. This is almost impossible on PC due to aggressive DRM (Digital Rights Management) methods used for PC games.
- Playing games on a console is extremely simple and hassle free, compared to a PC. You don't need to have any knowledge of PCs, because console games do not involve changing settings to suit your hardware or troubleshooting compatibility issues. You just buy the game disc (or download a digital copy), pop it into your console and start playing instantly (although some current-gen consoles require the game to be installed first).
- Unlike a PC, a console lasts for several years without the need to upgrade (consoles don't even support upgrading individual components). Once you buy a console, you can keep playing all the games released for it until the console actually becomes outdated and developers stop making games for it. So you save the cost of upgrades, which is inevitable on a PC (because you need to spend on upgrades quite often).
- Several excellent AAA games are console exclusives, and are never released for the PC (or released much later than on consoles). So it would make sense for you to go for a console which has the exclusives you like.
Now, here are some reasons why you may opt for a gaming PC:-
- Although a gaming PC usually costs a bomb initially, PC games are almost always priced lower than console games. Also, several major retail and digital game publishers hold sales at different points of the year, during which the games are sold dirt cheap. This actually makes the concept of 'used games' irrelevant in the world of PC gaming, because the games are sold at prices cheaper than used games during the sales.
- A PC can be upgraded as often as needed. Yeah, it is expensive to upgrade PC components, but it allows you to enjoy the latest games at butter smooth frame-rates without compromising on the graphics or other qualities. On the other hand, consoles struggle to keep up the performance with the latest games, when they age a bit.
- PCs provide you with a choice of using the control scheme of your choice (like keyboard-mouse, gamepad, joystick or steering wheel), while you're stuck with the default gamepad on consoles. Different genres of games work best with certain control schemes (for example, first person shooters are best played with a keyboard and mouse, due to the pinpoint accuracy and aiming precision offered by the mouse).
- Modifications (commonly called 'mods') extend the life and replay value of a game much beyond its original intended estimation. As of now, mods are only possible on PCs. The possibilities with mods are endless. Also, the fact that most of these mods are fan-made (read 'free') is the icing on the cake!
- A gaming PC can also be used to perform general computing tasks, so it actually saves space (because you need not have two separate devices for computing and gaming). If you want a big-screen console experience on a PC, you can hook up your PC with your large screen Plasma TV quite easily.
- Indie games (which are low budget games developed by individuals or small game studios) have found a cozy little home on PCs. Some of these Indie games match or surpass high budget AAA games with respect to quality, and they're much cheaper too. As of now, Indie games are pretty much non-existent on consoles.
