At least developers are forced to fine tune games for a very specific platform when it comes to consoles. Sure, the PC can look better, but at least the console plays better most of the time.
However, my build totally not competitive in the PC scene. I don't mind: it achieves 1080/60 at competent quality and that's all I care about.
In the next year I'll be replacing it outright only because of VR. I could have kept this build for at least another 2 years.
The treadmill only applies to those who want to run max settings all the time, matching console is as cheap as chips.
And they don't have to upgrade for all VR[1], just top end VR. The PSVR has lower specs than the Oculus Rift to compensate for the performance constraint of the platform, which already meets its limits in native gaming.
Besides the only games you can compare across platforms being developed with the lowest common denominator in mind, there are a multitude of tricks in play to homogenize the experiences between them, like dynamic resolution, level of detail, and depth of field. It's kind of like saying you're advantaged by avoiding the burden of ever needing to buy a 1440p 144Hz or 4k display and high end GPU because your games are all capped at 1080_60.
[1] http://www.wareable.com/headgear/the-best-ar-and-vr-headsets
Only if you make bad choices buying hardware, like the obsolete stuff that comes with consoles (even on release)
> console plays better most of the time
PCMasterRace plays real 1080@60 for over a decade
Enjoy your PS4K/Neo/neXt
It provides an unified device, which lasts around 8 years, which permits to play recent titles, which is simple to setup up and which is comparatively cheap.
The PC I'm typing this message is a 9 years old thinkpad, and I would not attempt to play any "less than 5 years old games" on it.
Some people don't give to much of a shit about highly impressive graphics and just want to play the fucking game without checking the "minimal configuration required".
However if consoles tend to be like PCs (same or worst hardware, same or worst upgrade process, etc), they will just become meaningless.
A decent build could last a console generation with a GPU upgrade in the middle.