I'm sorry, but this whole notion that all of the sudden consoles are just "weak PCs" is bullshit. The idea that consoles have all of the sudden just become PCs is flawed.
The PS3 was more like a PC than the PS4 has ever attempted to be. The architecture inside is rather irrelevant because that's not something you experience. If you didn't actively know the specs inside of the PS4, you would have no idea if the machine was entirely custom built or had parts resembling current off the shelf parts. That is, unless you develop for the system.
The PS3 was far more of a wannabe PC than the PS4 ever was. From launch, the system had every single type of memory slot available. This was only replicated by the PC.
It was touted as a media machine which tried to rival the capabilities of a PC by playing video, displaying pictures, browsing the web, streaming media, playing music and video, too.
You could hook up your printer to the system, too.
Also, back in 2006 and 2007, Sony was actively talking about the ability to mod your games and use KB/M for controls. Both of these were featured in UT3 for PS3 and the desire caught on. People thought it was huge that the PS3 had these capabilities. So Sony at least dabbled into modding and KB/M controls.
Also, the PS3 had linux support. Another PC feature.
I see the PS4 getting a lot of shit for being a "wannabe weak PC" but the PS3 was far more guilty. The only difference really is that it had the cell processor which was custom and unique and not used in PC's. The PS3 also pretty much shared cross platform ports with the PC all generation, too.
But some people are acting like all of the sudden consoles have become nothing but weak PCs.
They are videogames on x86 hardware, sounds PC-esque to me.
I am trying to expose the hilarity of having console cycles, a remnant of the 80's in 2014. All companies should be trying to phase this shit out and release their games on personal computing devices. Having closed environments, companies spending billions on R&D when Intel/Nvidia/AMD can do it for them, stifling competition by making games platform exclusive is ignorant and asinine. It's holding back gaming in general, and this news is depressing overall since it means this crap is more likely to continue.
You are operating under the assumption that if consoles were just killed off, the market will all in mass just go and purchase gaming PCs and put them in their living room.
In reality, they won't. The gaming market will shrink as the accessibility and convenience factor of a console will no longer exist. You know what really holds gaming back? Trying to appeal to a small audience. Not saying that the PC audience is smaller, but if a game like Call of Duty releases and its only on PC because consoles no longer exist, the game is not going to sell 10+ million copies.
