Points 1, 3, and 6 still apply, but my biggest reason, lower price, just doesn't any more. It still made sense when I got my PS5, but going forward it looks like dedicated PC hardware plugged into a TV like the Steam Machine will be the best overall option. Higher initial price, but cheaper games and with the convenient plug and play aspect. I already use my Steam Deck like this for less demanding games.

Stupidity. I call it the "mitigating factor."

So many things make more sense when we include it.

Convenience is the sole reason the majority of my friends own consoles but no PC, still today. I have tried to convince them and they just will not. And now they can't get a PC, so... eh.

The only real reason now is guaranteed performance for the price. At $1200 consoles might just have come as far as they're going to get.

There was a time when PC had physical resellable games too.

I do play a lot on my PS5, but besides that it’s my 4K disc player. I’ve got both that and the Xbox Series X, as the secondary 4K disc player. Plus y’know there’s all the old games I have on disc that are backwards compatible.

And to be honest I do prefer to game on my couch with my nice huge TV, where my main work and gaming PC isn’t.

I do have an older PC connected to the tv but it’s more for streaming and torrented content than gaming these days.

At some point I’ll bite the bullet and switch that one over to Linux and see if I can get some more gaming life out of it.

All that said, I don’t see myself buying whatever the hell this next Xbox/PC will be.

I’m more inclined to grab that Steam Box whenever the hell that is able to come out and whenever the hell I can afford it.

My assumption is that it’s a living room PC with a windows equivalent of steam big-picture mode on it.

But knowing Microsoft, there will be shenanigans.

Shareholders

They're going to do what Steam is doing and just open up Xbox branding for licensing on PC hardware, much like they did with XBOX Ally. So there will be something for everyone.

Except people who hate Microsoft, but they were never going to buy it anyway.

I don’t want a PC and all the attendant complexity

Not all that much complexity these days, unless you wanna do it on Linux - but even that's getting easier and easier.

Mostly you just start Steam, install the game you want, and launch it. Done. EVEN on Linux these days for most games.

Hmm... I always thought that the goal of consoles is to provide fewer options. You don't need to choose which components you want, you just buy the one and only box offered by the company.

And then there are the exclusives, where you also, as someone buying a different box, didn't get the choice to buy the game released for another box. And generally have fewer games to play.

Then there are the (online) shops, where, as a console player, you either have no choices or fewer.

Then there is multiplayer, where with a console you cannot use other services, and even have to pay for it.

And modding, which is also pretty limited on console, and you generally don't have the tools to create mods yourself to customize your gaming experience.

So... All in all, I thought the main 'advantage' of consoles is that you don't need to make so many choices, because making decisions is hard. But that comes at a cost, lower entry cost (hardware), but higher operating cost (games, online play).