The 8th generation arrived.....last year.

[TeamDei]

Fact: WiiU is not 8th Gen.

 

[Lightknight]

I count Wii U as eight generation because my understanding of console generations is that it refers to when a batch of consoles are released not the specs of those consoles.

part of the Kessel run moves you close to a cluster of black holes, the closer you fly to that the shorter the route you have to take.

Yep, that's exactly the bullshit George Lucas came up with in retrospect to justify his completely lack of understanding of technical terms.

Actually in the original script it was clear that Han Solo was lying but it didn't come across in the execution, I believe that the whole thing about the black holes was added into the expanded universe by someone other than George Lucas.

It's not specifically specs, but it's not necessarily a cluster of consoles either, just the next wave and step in console technology, whatever that means. Again, I point to Nintendo's 1st generation console being released in 1977. The last year of the first generation and the first year of the second generation.

I'd say this could go either way. Nintendo and Nintendo fans wouldn't dare call it a 7th generation console. But technologically and timewise it is firmly in the 7th generation realm. By all rights, it can definitely be considered the last entry of the 7th generation. But due to marketing and such in the modern era where being 7th generation means people think you're outdated, we'll call it 8th generation and that's that. Let's be very clear, the WiiU is a 360 with 1GB of RAM for games and 1 GB of RAM for the OS. The gamepad clearly isn't a revolution like the wiimote is, so the console fails on the side of innovation and specifications. It's not a good place to be in and Nintendo knows that now. Fortunately, they have enough cash from the Wii to weather this and probably a few other storms.

It is not technologically or innovatively an 8th generation console. But it is Nintendo's 8th generation entry. So for better or worse, that's it.

 

[Britisheagle]

When did console generations begin being defined by tech specs?

What's wrong with looking at tech specs? We are buying hardware. We want to know what that hardware is capable of. We'll worry about which games are good when we are buying games.

This. The same way I would make my decision regarding any other peice of hardware that had direct competetion. I want a next gen games console that can play next gen games.

 

[Whateveralot]

Now you tell me first:

What did the WiiU do to deserve to become a new generation?

Sure, it might have better specs than PS3 / Xbox360 (though I don't now exactly, because I too think that a new generation can no longer be based on specs); but what does it add? A screen on the controller? Mobile gaming had that figured out years ago (all right, minor sarcasm there, I apologise).

But yeah. That is basically it. What else did the WiiU add that we were unable to do before? It rises above the Wii in terms of specs, that's for sure, but it's not regarded as something spectacular anywhere. Without any real upgrade there is little left to fight for.

Now here's a twist for you:

It does not matter. Nintendo is simply no longer taking part in this "generation arms race". The same thing Apple did with the iPhone. It's good, it's quirky, there's demand and all in all, it's just something different.

There's also a catch: I don't think Nintendo is having enough third party support to guarantee a long lifetime for their consoles, which in turn cause the remaining interest to decline even further.