You don't get the point. The Alienware X51 is a realy nice alternative to a console. It's affordable and it has the size of a console. Around €700 and you have a decent system.
Heck, for the price of a console you can get a pretty dang nice PC for gaming. However, you don't buy a console just for the specs. Most people are more interested in the online service, peripherals, and exclusives. Consoles generate huge money, which allows for advancements that could never happen in the PC market. Not that I intend on buying an Xbox One or PS 4 any time soon. I'm totally a Steam guy, but I know that without consoles the economics of gaming would implode and no one would be able to release AAA titles anymore. We need the average consumer to buy consoles, and discs, and pay his $15 a month for online play. It floods the market with money, and allows publishers and developers to indulge in PC gaming despite it's relatively limited market share (excluding WOW of course.) Just like how Madden pays for EA to make games like Mirrors Edge. Sure we are super cool, but PC gaming can in no way support it's self. What's the last AAA title developed exclusively for PC? Crysis.....The Witcher? Both have moved to consoles, and there's a reason.
The main thing holding back the average person from playing primarily on PC is the complexity. Updating drivers, blue screen of death, Windows......being Windows....uh oh time to upgrade. It's easy for us, but it's our primary hobby. Steam has made huge leaps and bounds in fixing these issues, and Nvidia/AMD are also looking at ways to streamline simple issues on the PC. Nvidia Experience, Steam OS, Steam Machines, Steam in general. These things can easily make the PC the primary gaming machine....but not yet. EA, and Ubisoft will have to give up trying to replace Valve's Steam. No one wants to buy a game from Steam, and then have to launch a completely separate program, with it's own login, just to play a game. It's why I refuse to buy anything from either. They are a threat to the gaming business as a whole by jumping into the party 10 years to late, and wanting to take over. Valve will have to complete it's current objectives. Firstly, I'm in a Steam beta which allows me and my family to share the games we buy between different accounts. It's......a step in the right direction, but currently only one person can access a library at a time. So if my daughter play Dead Island from my library it locks me out from playing anything else. That's not ideal, but it's a Beta..so...you know. Nvidia Experience is pretty sweet, however ideally it needs to be integrated into Steam, and AMD needs to create a similar program. Long story short, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Valve, and every game publisher, and developer would have to all join into one single cause. They would all have to get on board with Valve to make this happen......strange bed fellows.
