No they don’t. Assuming you ‘shop smart’. A PS4 slim 1TB on Amazon sale set me back ~€200. PS+ goes for ~€40-50 a year, and gives you a few free games a month. If you’re willing to buy secondhand physical and/or be patient, most console AAA games can be had for €20-40 after a month or two. Hell, I bought God of War 2018 on a PS store sale for €35 three months after release, and that’s a premiere Playstion exclusive.
Let’s say you put together a gaming PC for €650 and buy AAA games for €10 a pop. We get the following situation after 3 years of ownership:
PS4
* €200 for the system
* €135 for 3 x €45 for PS+
* €360 for 12 secondhand AAA games
€0 for ~7 good PS+ games (36 months x 4 PS+ games x 5% average chance its a decent game)
* €695 total cost to experience 19 games
PC
* €650 for the system
* €180 for 18 AAA games via Steam / Kinguin / whatever
* €0 for 1 AAA game free with your GPU
* €830 total cost to experience 19 games
Now at this point avid PC gamers will huff and puff that their games will pretty much be eternally compatible, console gamers will gleefully point out how you need to constantly fidget with your PC for optimal graphic / driver settings on the PC, etc etc; Those are for yourself to decide. But purely on price, a PC can’t compete with a console.
PS4 * €200 for the system * €135 for 3 x €45 for PS+ * €360 for 12 secondhand AAA games €0 for ~7 good PS+ games (36 months x 4 PS+ games x 5% average chance its a decent game) * €695 total cost to experience 19 games
PC * €650 for the system * €180 for 18 AAA games via Steam / Kinguin / whatever * €0 for 1 AAA game free with your GPU * €830 total cost to experience 19 games
Now at this point avid PC gamers will huff and puff that their games will pretty much be eternally compatible, console gamers will gleefully point out how you need to constantly fidget with your PC for optimal graphic / driver settings on the PC, etc etc; Those are for yourself to decide. But purely on price, a PC can’t compete with a console.