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

[Spaceman Spiff]

Anyone who talks about "next-gen" in relation to power is making about as much sense as Han Solo when he uses parsecs as a unit of time

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.

Heh, I was going to suggest that too. The shorter your flight path, the more dangerous it is, the bigger your balls, the more bragging rights you get. Though I'm not sure how long a parsec actually is or what the Kessel Run actually looks like to determine if 12 parsecs is an appropriate distance for such a run.

On topic: I think the reason people don't really associate the WiiU with gen8 is that it's more comparable to the PS3 and 360 than it will be to the PS4 and 180. I do think of it as gen8, but also that the gen8 party hasn't started yet. Nintendo just arrived early.

 

[Remus]

I get the feeling that if say 4 E3s from now Nintendo introduced a box with 100gb of ram, 1 TB of storage space, a gpu that could calculate pi to the last digit and it only cost a hundred bucks, people would still dismiss it.

If Nintendo did that then we might actually consider them next gen. Defend them all you like, Nintendo has almost no third party support for the very reasons espoused in this thread. They are too far behind the curve technologically for Moore's law to even remotely apply to them. You look forward to the next Mario, Zelda, or Metroid. I'll stick to my PC, which IS upgradeable, and the true next gen consoles that at least attempt to keep up with current technological trends for higher graphic fidelity, more interative environments, and overall increased immersion. I am looking forward to the next 2 years of gaming simply because major developers will not feel nearly so bottlenecked whenever a console port of a PC game is requested.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Think of it this way. You're a buxom young lady at the beach and the three companies are guys at trying to catch your eye. Microsoft and Sony are chiseled tan hunks of men letting the sun rays glisten off of their perfect washboard abs as they come out of the water in slow motion. Nintendo is the scrawny pasty guy on the shore, introspectively staring off into the horizon and painting a picture of the sea.

Your analogy made me laugh, but I can still improve upon it.

Again you're a young lady at the beach, only the PS3 and 360 are two 17 year old jocks, wrestling with eachother, while the wii, an 11 year old kid, is building a sand castle. The PC is your middle aged dad. Who will you date and why?

My dad, because I'm a little bit fucked up that way. Wait...

 

[veloper]

Think of it this way. You're a buxom young lady at the beach and the three companies are guys at trying to catch your eye. Microsoft and Sony are chiseled tan hunks of men letting the sun rays glisten off of their perfect washboard abs as they come out of the water in slow motion. Nintendo is the scrawny pasty guy on the shore, introspectively staring off into the horizon and painting a picture of the sea.

Your analogy made me laugh, but I can still improve upon it.

Again you're a young lady at the beach, only the PS3 and 360 are two 17 year old jocks, wrestling with eachother, while the wii, an 11 year old kid, is building a sand castle. The PC is your middle aged dad. Who will you date and why?

My dad, because I'm a little bit fucked up that way. Wait...

That's correct. And do you also know why?

 

[Ruzinus]

When did console generations begin being defined by tech specs?

In 1996 when Nintendo named its next gen console the Nintendo 64 to try and make it seem better than the Playstation.

...or before that when Sega put 16 BIT on the front of the Genesis? We learned that bits aren't really that big of a thing before N64 ever came out. Atleast I did. Can you even tell me what advantage 64 bit had over the 32 bit Playstation or the 32 bit PC?

You might've, but I sure didn't. I was I think 9 when the 64 came out, and I sure thought it was twice as powerful as the Playstation.

The entire concept of a console generation is a marketing thing, and the marketing works.

 

[WanderingFool]

When did console generations begin being defined by tech specs?

Isnt that how console generations were always defined? New consoles alwaysa having new tech that allows for new, better games, yadda yadda...

 

[snowbear]

Who cares what generation they call it... just buy what ever you want.

Personally I'm sticking with my PC/WII U combo so I'll get the best combination of great games. I might pick up one of the other two later on if some decent exclusives turn up and catch my eye.

If anyone does/doesn't buy hardware based on a number assigned to it but somebody online, then they don't deserve to play decent games anyway.

 

[Megahedron]

Time to fart in the wind.

I'll give you my favorite reasons people say WiiU is last gen: To make fun of it/Nintendo, thereby angering strangers on the internet. We gamers are brand loyal (I know I am) so it's fun to create us/them scenarios where we win. And lastly, because a video game generation is not a legally defined term, we can say whatever we want and no one can prove us wrong (much like 3G and 4G).

In my ever-so-humble opinion, I think it will be part of the 8th gen, but not until the 8th gen starts. I think we're still in the 7th gen until a decent chunk of releases are on the new consoles which won't start until the 'bone and PS4 are out. If, however, Nintendo releases another console four or five years before Microsoft or Sony (possible, if unlikely) we will probably all in retrospect have to consider the WiiU to be 7.5.

 

[nima55]

snip

If Nintendo did that then we might actually consider them next gen. Defend them all you like, Nintendo has almost no third party support for the very reasons espoused in this thread. They are too far behind the curve technologically for Moore's law to even remotely apply to them. You look forward to the next Mario, Zelda, or Metroid. I'll stick to my PC, which IS upgradeable, and the true next gen consoles that at least attempt to keep up with current technological trends for higher graphic fidelity, more interative environments, and overall increased immersion. I am looking forward to the next 2 years of gaming simply because major developers will not feel nearly so bottlenecked whenever a console port of a PC game is requested.

Or I could be one of the sensible people that have both a pc and a Nintendo console best of both worlds.

 

[snowbear]

Think of it this way. You're a buxom young lady at the beach and the three companies are guys at trying to catch your eye. Microsoft and Sony are chiseled tan hunks of men letting the sun rays glisten off of their perfect washboard abs as they come out of the water in slow motion. Nintendo is the scrawny pasty guy on the shore, introspectively staring off into the horizon and painting a picture of the sea.

Your analogy made me laugh, but I can still improve upon it.

Again you're a young lady at the beach, only the PS3 and 360 are two 17 year old jocks, wrestling with eachother, while the wii, an 11 year old kid, is building a sand castle. The PC is your middle aged dad. Who will you date and why?

My dad, because I'm a little bit fucked up that way. Wait...

That's correct. And do you also know why?

Because hes the best option right now and later on when he gets a bit older you can upgrade from him?

 

[Alfredo Jones]

These days people always judge machines by their specs. It's the same reason why people will flock to stores every year to buy a new smartphone even though the one they have is perfectly functional. The only good thing that comes from this mindless pursuit of upgrading to the latest hardware is that it forces idiots to pump millions of dollars into the economy. Me, I don't upgrade unless it includes a feature that actually would be useful (like the iPhone 5S's fingerprint scanner).

The same thing applies to video game consoles. The Xbox One can have all the pretty polygons and Kinect stuff it wants, but if I don't see a game I like I ain't buying it. For those wondering I am planning on buying a PS4 because of Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV. And the Wii U? Well I love me some Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and all that other jazz so heck yeah I bought one. It's also my console of choice for any indie games since I can play on the Gamepad while watching Netflix on the big screen.

As for whether the Wii U is 8th gen or not, I say it is. The argument over whether a game is "next gen" because of its release date OR its specs is stupid. Why? Because the answer is that it is based on release date AND specs. A next generation console is one that releases at a date around the time of its competitors and is superior to its predecessor spec-wise in some degree. The Wii U was released last year and is more powerful than the last generation consoles, if only by a small margin. Unless some angel descends from heaven with a message from God saying "The Wii U is henceforth to be considered a 7th generation console" then it's not going to change.

 

[Chaud]

A gen is not really a "time frame". Though that does come into play when a new type is released.
But usually, it's based on the generation of systems.

My list will be incomplete, but has the main systems of the gens I've decided to show - I honestly don't remember if the Atari and Collecovision are first or second, so I won't include them:

8th: PS4, Xbone, WiiU
7th: PS3, 360, Wii
6th: PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast
5th: PS1, N64, Saturn
4th: SNES, Genesis, TG-16, Neo Geo
3rd: NES, Master System

Basically, this.

In fact, probably many of you here are too young to remember, but the definition of a "generation" based on hardware started since the time of the NES and Master System. When the MegaDrive (Genesis) was released, the fact that it was a 16-Bit console was spread to the four corners of the earth like it was something amazing. Seriously, it was *so* important that it is written at the top of the console itself! Do you have any idea of ​​how important it was to get to be part of the design of the very thing? Please!

The SuperNes didn't do the same, but in the advertisements it was also heavily touted the fact of being a 16-bit console, the millions of colors that it could use simultaneously and so many other things. With the arrival of the Playstation and Saturn the same thing happened again: the magazines highlighted the incredible potential of 32-bit video games and its three-dimensional games. (Although games like StarFox existed on the SNES already.) Again, all the weight was on hardware and specifically, in bits.

The last console trying to define a generation based on "bits " was, obviously, the Nintendo 64. It tried to put itself as part of a distinct generation of the others, but the design choices of Nintendo (the use cartridges instead of CDs as media for example) ended up making the N64 become an eccentric console, not exactly comparable to the others. That, of course, has become kind of a trend thereafter.

From this point on, I think we all remember. The XBOX and PS2 were clearly superior and, therefore, considered as a new generation. The power of consoles is and always has been the determining factor in the change of generations, especially the huge advance in *graphic* (yes , the frist true graphic wh*res were the console gamers) that has always distinguished the games of a new generation. That has always been the fundamental distinction between each generation in advertisements: the games of the new generation would be "incredibly" (well, not really) more beautiful than the later generation.

So I guess that's why many people don't really consider the WIIU as a new generation; simply because it isn't and will never be able to change the graphics level of what can be seen in the current generation consoles. It's at the same level. The PS4 and Xbox1 are obviously more powerful and, because of that, will raise the visuals of games released from now on. Hardware, as always, is the basis of the change. I'm not saying that this differentiation between the consoles is necessary or even useful. I'm just saying that's how it always was.

 

[babinro]

Because the Wii U doesn't exist at the escapist.

Look at all the coverage it gets here.
Or how often polls on this site fail to include it as an option.

People are more likely to consider the 3DS Nintendo's 8th generation console over the WiiU.
The only thing that gets less recognition is mobile gaming.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

It's really not that tricky. I don't know why younger gamers have to needlessly complicate things these days.

Pretty much sums it up.

Incidentally, I will be buying a Wii U, because I missed out on the Wii and have quite a few games I'd like to try- Xenoblade, Last Story, Skyward Sword, etc. Not to mention I can play Wind Waker HD, Monolith Soft's X, the new Wii U Zelda when that comes out...

Sounds like a good deal.

 

[Snotnarok]

The WiiU isn't the 8th generation.......because you said it yourself, it's using current generation tech, it doesn't matter how you spin it, the hardware is very similar in capability to PS3 & 360, therefore it really does fit in the current gen.

The other point is STOP linking hardware to graphics, that's NOT what it's about. Do you have any idea what devs do to get games to run on current gen consoles? Limiting field of view, lowering resolution (most games are upscaled to 720p, that's right, they're not even 720p), games like skyrim limit the armor parts and types, games have smaller and more narrow maps, games are limited to 30fps or lower, limited animations, less character model variety.

^ That is not anything to do with visual aesthetics that effects gameplay, yes FPS does matter, 60 is optimal for competitive play allowing you for better reactions, heck even out of competitive try limiting a game like Mario to 25-30 fps, it's much harder to play. Field of view not important? Okay put a long narrow box infront of your eyes, make sure you have no peripheral vision, it can give many headaches.

Better hardware allows for more things to be done beyond just stupid graphics, it allows the devs more breathing room to do more impressive things or things that allow for more fun or complicated tasks.

 

[Something Amyss]

I honestly don't see why it matters whether people call it eight gen, seventh gen, or fifth gen. This seems one of the things least worth fighting for on a long list of things hardly worth fighting for.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

I've never really counted the Wii or Wii U among the gaming platforms. It's specs are by far worse, sure, but that's not the only thing. It gets far less games, mostly party games, and it's controls feel gimmicky. The Wii always felt like kind of an accessory to me. Something like a "half-console" rather than a full one.

JUST the way I see things, you don't need to send the Nintendo Assault Team to kidnap and execute me for heresy.

 

[Saelune]

The WiiU's specs mean that most multi-platform next-gen titles won't get released for it. The Wii didn't get some of the most popular multi-platform games of the last generation (Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, etc), and the same will happen with the WiiU. Notice that most of the WiiU's third-party games are actually 7th gen ports.

The Wii U's strengths is in games MADE for it. I would NEVER buy a game I can get on 360/One or PS3/4 for it, because they suffer for it. Games like Pikmin 3 however, are the reason to buy it.

 

[Doom972]

The WiiU's specs mean that most multi-platform next-gen titles won't get released for it. The Wii didn't get some of the most popular multi-platform games of the last generation (Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, etc), and the same will happen with the WiiU. Notice that most of the WiiU's third-party games are actually 7th gen ports.

The Wii U's strengths is in games MADE for it. I would NEVER buy a game I can get on 360/One or PS3/4 for it, because they suffer for it. Games like Pikmin 3 however, are the reason to buy it.

Then the WiiU is definitely the console for you. I wish you all the enjoyment you can get out of Nintendo first-party games.
It doesn't change the fact that most next-gen multi-platform games won't come out for it. That's the reasoning behind people not considering it an 8th generation console.

 

[Billy D Williams]

Well maybe its because, good or bad, most people expect a next generation console to bring something new to gaming. Ya, a console with a tablet is different but considering nobody bought it and nobody cares nothing really changed because of it.