Consoles don't matter anymore

I just don't think video game consoles matter anymore, in the sense that choosing one or the other (of the big two) makes any real difference.

Back in the day (read: 80's and 90's) there used to be an appreciable difference in game consoles.  So much so that kids (OK, nerds) used to stake some of their identity on which one they chose.  The differences in hardware could be pretty significant, which manifested as marked differences in the game experience.  Games were often native to one console, with rare exceptions usually being very popular arcade conversions (that didn't belong to a console maker) and sports titles.  There wasn't a lot of talk about console "exclusives" because it was pretty much a given that most titles would only see the light of day on its "own" platform.  This aspect started to diminish toward the end of the 90's as Nintendo's licensing chokehold was broken by both the courts and the fact that Sega had upended Nintendo's dominance of the North American market with the Genesis.

Today, more than any time in the past, which console of the two major entries (Xbox One and PS4) one chooses makes little practical difference.  Sure, the controllers are different and their approach to online services and multiplayer aren't the same and thus one can have a very valid reason for choosing one over the other due to those preferences, but aside from that, little else differentiates.

The specs of the systems are nearly identical, and are both basically self-contained, simplified gaming PCs.  One still sees "fanboy wars" on the internet but this largely devolves into frames-per-second and pixel counting exercises.  To the casual observer, little, if any, difference between a title on each platform is discernible.  Again, this is in stark contrast to the past, wherein the occasional multi-platform title often looked, sounded and behaved very differently from one machine to another.  In some cases, the entire game was reworked for each platform and sometimes ended being almost unrecognizable from one console to another.  The game library of a console defined the console's character as much as their hardware.

There are also very few console "exclusives" these days.  Given the extreme expense of developing a title, particularly AAA-level games, and the similarity of hardware, there is a huge incentive to release across as many platforms as possible in order to maximize return on investment.  First and second-party development has seriously dwindled and so there is little software-wise to separate the two major systems.  Oddly enough, the platform with the most "exclusives" is now the PC, which brings me to my point...

If you're a "serious" gamer, and have the funds and are willing to put up with some mild inconveniences, the Windows gaming PC is far and away the most sensible choice.  The console is, in a way, defunct.  Since all they are today is low-end simplified gaming PCs (and there's honestly nothing wrong with that), if one can spend a little more and doesn't mind Windows and what comes with it, a dedicated gaming PC offers an experience that can be truly head-and-shoulders above the consoles and play the vast majority of the same games, better.  Given the success of Steam, GOG and Kickstarter, one can also enjoy a number of great experiences only on PC, or perhaps on PC first.  Again, "back in the day", PC games were kind of their own animal, behaving differently and catering to a vastly different consumer than consoles.  Today, those worlds have merged and console games and PC games are largely similar experiences.  Until Nintendo can produce something that is truly revolutionary and not merely niche or "novel", or a new (or old) company enters (or re-enters) the console fray with something genuinely new to offer, it is my opinion that the console as we have known it will likely soon cease to be.  Microsoft has already somewhat acknowledged this with their "Play Anywhere" initiative bringing most of their Xbox games to PC.  In a way, I hope this proves not to be true.  I still love playing old TurboGrafx / PC Engine games... it's a unique experience and that kind of thing really doesn't happen much anymore.  Unless you count waggling a plastic brick at the screen.