You make goods points, food for thought... I only wish to clarify the point I was making when I said "...high cost console gaming..." and that is based on the way we (my wife and myself) buy PC games. Almost all games for the PC come out at around the price you can get them for on the console. However if you wait even a month, most of these titles will sell for half of what their console counterpart sells for. Consoles games often take years to come down to the same price I can buy a PC game for after only a month or two, if ever. I have an entirely unscientific suspiscion as to the reason for this PC platform, game price reduction and that is piracy. Clearly these titles are still selling on the PC after a month or two. The original Half Life is one of the few titles which after several years on store shelves was still selling for around forty dollars retail. It is MUCH harder to pirate console games than it is to pirate PC games.
I guess the cost effectiveness of console gaming comes down to this: Do you purchase MANY titles in the time you own your console or just a few? My PC hardware costs more for certain but as of late I find that I don't need to upgrade as often to play the latest games as most of the titles are simultaneously being released for slower console-based hardware. Yes, consoles are MUCH easier to use and less prone to the problems of PC games and that is definitely a mark in their favor. From the perspective of a PC gamer however, they stifle the market for new titles and new rendering methods after a couple of years. It is not in the best interest of the console manufacturer to release new hardware as long as the market for their competition has not dictated they need to compete.
