: PCs aren't as expensive as they once were. An eight hundred dollar laptop can
: run Skyrim at or near maximum settings. The days of "oh shit I just
: got this graphics card and now it's obsolete" are gone; we've hit a
: plateau. That's why MS did what they did with the Xbox One: they saw that
: improved hardware would only marginally enhance the device and sought to
: expand its capabilities.

: You get a decent PC now, it's going to last you for five or six years at the
: very least (more with incremental upgrades), and you won't have any
: problems playing the latest games. Part of that is because a lot of big
: titles are multi-platform and so none of them can be terribly intense,
: part of that is the stuff I just described.

Price, you hit the nail on the head. Even a high end, not highest, laptop can do what you suggest. I have one of those. Dedi GPU too. In the USA, the price is around $800. That's already twice the price of a PS4. To reach the loftier goals of the best gaming experience you can add on at least another $300 with a jump after that being another $700.

If you set lower goals for your PC gaming you can get away with it on a $800 laptop. At least with a console you know your gaming is as good as the next guy's.

If you think that same PC will keep up with the AAA titles for five years, I'm shaking my. I don't even plan for a laptop to last for more than 3 years. That way, with a triennial replacement plan, I can keep up with the latest tech. I don't buy games for it though.

I've seen my son having to deal with Steam distributed games. It was at times, a horror show of TU after TU to get a new release to barely work.