I have been a devoted fan of the PCs for a whole decade. However, I decided that I deserved something for working off my ass in high school, and so I ordered my parents to buy me a PS3. So, having experienced both worlds, I believe I have a good view on the issue here.
The PC is still awesome - it has better graphics than any console will ever have, even if we're talking about a port from a console. Something among the lines of FS2 with all the shiny SCP graphics or Crysis is just unreachable for X-Box or PS3. The ability to mod games is also a great thing. And don't even get me started on all the various things beside gaming that you can do on a PC... Also, PC games cost like 50% less than their console counterparts (God bless Poland
).
And it's also a common myth that PCs cost a lot to maintain. Thanks to the consoles and the fact that all games are catered for them, even a moderate rig can still play games on high details. I bought a Core2Duo @2,66GHz, GeForce 8800GT and 2GB RAM machine almost 3 years ago for about $400-500. I haven't changed a thing in it all this time, except for the gfx card which got broken - it got upgraded (for free !) to 9800GT because the shop didn't have any more 8800GTs. I am yet to find a game that would beat this rig - I can play almost everything on full details, maybe just reducing shadow quality every now and then a bit. But the games still look helluva better than their console version - Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 are the prime examples.
What I have to give to the consoles is their ease of use. I must admit, that there are times when I'd rather buy a console game, because of the ease of installation. You just put the disc in the drive, wait till it gets installed and you play it. On PC, you have to configure it and possibly mess around with the config files to get even better performance, at the same time worrying about stupid DRM (Ubisoft, I am looking at you !), system specs, whether the game was designed for ATI or nVidia card, etc. And then the game may just randomly crash, because Windows decided that it's a good time for a crash or because the designers didn't test the game on every possible PC configuration. When compared to the consoles, it almost seems that playing on PC is a gamble
And, last but not least, the very way of playing differs. Maybe it's only me, but I get really involved when I play PC games. I sit close to the monitor, desperately twisting my joystick to get that one last Dragon in FS2 before it can blast my remaining 2% of hull. I desperately move my mouse to hit that damn tentacle in Dead Space. I stop breathing for a few seconds when I aim with my sniper rifle in Mass Effect.
And on consoles ? I lie on sofa, lazily moving my thumbs and pressing buttons while I play on a 40" LCD TV that is quite far from me. It's almost like watching a TV. The only moment when you become more active is when you have to mash buttons like a madman in some QTE.
Summary - gaming on consoles requires less effort and is easier = gaming becomes more accessible = more people play it = the devs get more money. Gaming has become yet another entertainment and lost a lot of its nerdy and geeky status.