tea urchin :
Every hard core console user I know has said they buy consoles 'because they just work'.
They need no upgrading , can play a dvd, need no expertise or other software,
and even have a remote control; You just turn on the console, put in your $50 game and play.
It true. Both of them said that.
So I guess they weren't one of the people who had a DOZEN RROD's in a single year leaving them without a console for most of the year. Even review sites have editors that have had 1/2 dozen, so it's not like this wasn't commonplace.
If you build your PC with quality components you don't spend time fixing it either. Yesterday I swapped in two new hard drives to replace two that smart said were about to fail, and while in there swapped out old fans. It is 7yrs old, so this is no shocker and the only other thing I've done is stick in a new vid card (radeon 5850) half way through that period.
Today consoles are PC's. So they have the same day one fixes (xbox1 had a day one too right?) for some games that PC's do. If you don't play games at launch and just wait a few months after some patches come (in most cases anyway, BF4 looks to take a year to fix...LOL), you will largely escape crashing and have a great time just as you would on LAST gen consoles. Oh and the games can be had then for $5-40 on steam (I prefer GOG.com for all games but you get the point) after the new factor wears off. Many times that is mere months. Steam/gog etc do the patching for you, so even that is pretty much behind the backs of the users with no expertise needed by them. Being a PC user has never been easier. I mean 15yrs ago when I had a PC business we charged $30-50 for a windows install (with drivers etc, apps or games if they wanted us to do it, some came with a pile of 10-15 discs for installs) but today that's kind of a joke as even a complete newb could likely get done with it in under an hour. Win7 goes on with a few clicks and some personal info (date, time, who you are etc). A few driver installs later and you're done basically and many of those come via MS updates, though I'd still say head to their real websites and get it yourself after up and running (MS doesn't always hand out the latest or even the right ones in some cases). Nobody brings wads of games/apps for you to install today either. For many with everything on board, you might have ZERO drivers, or just a vid card as the rest comes with the board packaged up (ethernet, wifi, sound, chipset etc). Sure you'd likely update them periodically but I mean getting a copy of windows on a new build. It isn't hard.
Like I said, it's never been easier to be a PC user. Aside from failures that happen for all (rrod for console, dead vid card for pc etc as examples), both sides enjoy pretty much the same easy road. But PC's have better graphics, deeper games and flexibility you just can't get on consoles (surround gaming, multiple gpus, upgradable if desired etc).