I mean, I 100% agree. I feel like overall I save money with PC. But this initial cost is daunting. It's what most people use as an excuse for not gaming on PC, along with couch gaming (lul). But looking at it for what it is, you can play a lot more games on a $400 console than you could on a $400 PC.
Can you? With a $400 PC you gain access to the massive catalog of PC games, many of which don't need high-end hardware to perform well. A $400 PC can play literally thousands of games, no games console can come even close.
I think your point probably was that a $400 console is likely to have more graphical horsepower than a similarly priced PC, so games might run decently on console and poorly or not at all on PC. It's a reasonable point but I do have some thoughts on it:
- The difference in GPU horsepower will not be that big. For example, the $500 XB1X performs at the level of a GTX 1060 while a $500 PC can only accomodate a 1050ti due to the cryptomining GPU pricing bloat. While that GPU is certainly weaker, it's still no slouch and it can play every game out there at 1080p and medium settings.
- Graphics settings on PC can allow modern games to run on some really old, really weak systems. On PC there is no forced cutoff point like on consoles, the release of new hardware doesn't mean that old hardware is obsolete. Even if games won't run quite as well as on the console, you will still be able to get a decent experience by using graphics settings to take some load off your machine.
- PCs are upgradable, which means that although the initial cost is higher you can save money in the future by upgrading only some parts. Buying a PS4 at launch and then the PS4 Pro at launch would cost you $800 in total. Buying a $600 PC and buying a new $200 graphics card three years later would cost you the same but you'd have better performance than both consoles.
That's the great thing about PCs, you get a lot of options.
