Gethsemani said:
Easy:
1. The extreme hardware and software diversity and the hellish problems of compatibility and stability that leads to, especially in regards to games.
2. The constant need to stay up to date on new drivers, keep up with software patches and how they might interact with your set up and what problems that might cause relating to point 1.
To be honest I don't find these problems unless you're using fairly ancient hardware, or ancient games. Haven't updated my drivers in at least 3 years and things run fine. Over 6 computer builds, I've never had a compatibility or stability issue because of the hardware. These are mostly older problems, though I'll give they occasionally pop up these days due to issue #3 you mentioned: Shit ports -.-
3. The awkward control schemes that result from multi-platform releases and the frequent inability to customize it fully (I swear, the number of games that won't let me map to Mouse 4 and 5 are getting more and more common with every year).
4. The space the computer itself occupies, it was what drove me from towers as a student to laptops.
But mostly:
Yeah, these are true. Especially 3.
4 I personally find a TV bigger, but it depends on the person. Most people probably have both a PC, and a TV, so space probably isn't too much of an issue. There have been times I wished my full tower were only a half so I could shove a fridge next to it though...
5. The expense of keeping hardware up to date to get both good graphical and aural fidelity with smooth gameplay, especially if you, like me, are gaming on laptops due to room constraints.
TBH this is only for OCD people that want max graphics, or to deal with #3. I upgrade my computer once every 3-8 years. And that's to max out graphics, not just keep them 'good'. If you only update when consoles do, you keep the costs way down.
OT: MOSTLY the issues with the PC come from negligence of the platform by developers - both for the PC [I.E: Microsoft with Windows] and for multiplatform [I.E: Many games devs].
Crappy ports are the majority of the issue. Poor control schemes. Poor graphics. Locked FPS and resolution to make it on par with the consoles. Poor FoV also is a huge issue, and motion blur annoys a lot of people and is locked on to help console performance.
Windows itself, and the fact its the only PC platform developed for most of the time [Mac and Linux exist too guys], also has issues. Windows makes you at the mercy of Microsoft, and often that's not a good thing with the direction they've been trying to take things recently. It also limits which OS you're able to use if you want to play games at all, rather than consoles where its more which games you want to play.
Size and cost are minor issues. A full tower is a fair bit bigger than a console, and whilst most people probably have room for it, it does take some out of the picture when they have other priorities [I.E: A TV]. PCs also have a higher upfront cost, though a lower ongoing cost. Makes it harder to purchase, and can delay you being able to play games. Once you have it the games are cheaper by around $10 most of the time, and with things like Steam sales and Humble Bundles... You can save a fortune. It does depend on the sort of gamer you are though.
One extra downside is the confusion that backwards compatibility brings. With Consoles, if you have an Xbox 360 game, it won't run on the Xbox 1. With PC, if you have a Windows XP game, it WILL run on Windows 7. It might need a couple of fixes - I.E: Run it in compatibility mode, with administrator privileges, with forced hardware Anti-Aliasing off - but it can run, and it introduces many of the compatibility problems that are smaller and that people run into. You can run games back to the DOS days on a PC, but older games have different methods to run it. All are simply counted as PC games though that you can run on a PC. This causes confusion for many, as games aren't clearly labelled as to which version they're meant for - its just small fine print on the back.
The final downside I can really think of is in the community and social aspect. If you game on the PC, it is still seen as somewhat niche, more for doing your thing, whereas consoles are seen as more of a communal thing, where you're focused more on playing with friends. This means that, for playing with friends, there's more pressure to get a console, and generally when playing on a PC you'll not have the same options available for people to play with, as they'll have gone console for its 'communal' reputation.
This is changing, however. Most of my friends are all PC exclusive gamers. We have to play a console at some point and we're all "WTF is this shit", and we play online together fairly often. Even my more 'dudebro' friends are split 50/50 between PC and console - and this is from all of us coming from a near exclusively console background. However, it is still the sort of thing where to play with friends many have to buy a console, and find it harder to do so with a PC.
Overall though, most of the downsides of any platform are subjective. PCs and consoles are aimed at separate audiences, and thus when someone calls out a downside [I.E: No Physical disks], its not a downside for others [My room is filled with disks. ~300 PC games, ~400 console spreading from N64 up to PS2 era. Buying physical copies also exposes me to my home town's ridiculous weather {Literal 4 seasons in one day. We don't have normal days here}, and requires me to spend money on public transport and travel for ~2 hours in total to buy the game, when I could buy it in 1 minute and just do other things important to me whilst it downloads].
So, there are a number of 'situational' downsides as well, where context is very important. Hell, really, context is important for all of the downsides, but some are more simply compensated for, rather than being an advantage to other people.
