Are we in Gen. 9 now? Will we ever be?

[Yoshi178]

Whether I like it or not? I don't care one way or another.

says one thing.

Better graphics aren't gonna make their unappealing kiddie franchises and cheap little experiments more appealing to me. Nintendo doesn't try to stay with the others at the front of the graphics competition anymore, like they used to. They release their consoles at totally different intervals now. When Microsoft releases their new consoles, Sony tries not to be far behind, but with Nintendo, nobody cares. They don't affect the gaming landscape and developers on a huge scale. So, they're not part of the generations anymore. It's just gonna get even more confusing when they release their next Nintendo maybe two years after the PS5. Eventually, they're gonna be, according to you people, two generations ahead, even though their newest console may be inferior to the others.

then proceeds to go on a rant about he doesn't consider Nintendo relevant and that he's not interested in them despite the fact that he literally just said he doesn't care one way or the one.

if you didn't care you would've stopped right after that sentence rather than going on a big rant about how "not relevant" you consider them to be. either you don't care or you do. pick one.

Oh brother... Writing a few sentences doesn't take effort, and I wouldn't even call what I wrote a rant. I don't care about Nintendo, meaning I don't want to play their games. Doesn't mean I have nothing to say about them. I also know you're complicated to argue with, so I'm gonna say more than a few words. I didn't think you'd reply with basically nothing.

ok fair enough.

regardless just because you don't care about Nintendo doesn't mean much. they are still competitors in the console video gaming market regardless of your personal thoughts on them. Microsoft and Sony just happen to focus their attention on having the most powerful box and Nintendo focus's on unique ways to play games, currently being on taking your home console games on the go with you as a handheld and vice versa.

and console generations relate to time on the market and which number iteration the console is. PS2/Xbox Original/ Gamecube and Dream cast made up the 6th generation of consoles, Wii/PS3/360 made up the 7th generation, PS4/Xbox One/Wii U made up the 8th generation, and now the Switch is Nintendo's next mainline console release which makes the Switch the start of the 9th generation of consoles.

PS5 and the 4th xbox will probably be announced in a year or 2 and they will also be in the 9th generation of consoles.

 

[gorfias]

There really aren?t rigidly defined generations anymore, now that incremental upgrades appear to be the norm. My prediction is that once bandwidth infrastructure catches up with network speeds, we?ll see a shift to pure set-top streaming ?boxes? akin to a Roku. Console games will devolve into a mere service vs a product, with subscriptions mandatory. At that point l?ll simply stop buying consoles personally, since without a hard drive to store games on, you?ll never ?own? anything and will always be at the mercy of a stupid server and network connection. While they may improve with time, they will never be as reliable or secure as a local, physical device that can be played both on or offline.

PC?s will mostly be immune to this because there will always be a market for the physical components; at least I bloody well hope so, but then again stranger (and dumber) things have been known to happen. The point is it?s up to the gaming consumer to prevent this loss of control and ownership, but this tenet hasn?t historically trended well in our favor.

 

[Yoshi178]

Whether I like it or not? I don't care one way or another.

says one thing.

Better graphics aren't gonna make their unappealing kiddie franchises and cheap little experiments more appealing to me. Nintendo doesn't try to stay with the others at the front of the graphics competition anymore, like they used to. They release their consoles at totally different intervals now. When Microsoft releases their new consoles, Sony tries not to be far behind, but with Nintendo, nobody cares. They don't affect the gaming landscape and developers on a huge scale. So, they're not part of the generations anymore. It's just gonna get even more confusing when they release their next Nintendo maybe two years after the PS5. Eventually, they're gonna be, according to you people, two generations ahead, even though their newest console may be inferior to the others.

then proceeds to go on a rant about he doesn't consider Nintendo relevant and that he's not interested in them despite the fact that he literally just said he doesn't care one way or the one.

if you didn't care you would've stopped right after that sentence rather than going on a big rant about how "not relevant" you consider them to be. either you don't care or you do. pick one.

Oh brother... Writing a few sentences doesn't take effort, and I wouldn't even call what I wrote a rant. I don't care about Nintendo, meaning I don't want to play their games. Doesn't mean I have nothing to say about them. I also know you're complicated to argue with, so I'm gonna say more than a few words. I didn't think you'd reply with basically nothing.

ok fair enough.

regardless just because you don't care about Nintendo doesn't mean much.

You said, "whether you like it or not." Why do you make a presumption about my opinion and then say it doesn't matter? I didn't pretend my feelings about Nintendo are true for everyone else. You're the one who brought it up.

they are still competitors in the console video gaming market regardless of your personal thoughts on them. Microsoft and Sony just happen to focus their attention on having the most powerful box and Nintendo focus's on unique ways to play games, currently being on taking your home console games on the go with you as a handheld and vice versa.

and console generations relate to time on the market and which number iteration the console is. PS2/Xbox Original/ Gamecube and Dream cast made up the 6th generation of consoles, Wii/PS3/360 made up the 7th generation, PS4/Xbox One/Wii U made up the 8th generation, and now the Switch is Nintendo's next mainline console release which makes the Switch the start of the 9th generation of consoles.

PS5 and the 4th xbox will probably be announced in a year or 2 and they will also be in the 9th generation of consoles.

At this rate, the future Nintendo may be gen 12 and the PlayStation may be gen 10. It's a worthless way of thinking when Nintendo are basically in their own bubble now. Sony and MS aren't gonna rush to release their new consoles just because Nintendo already released theirs. Most of the third party developers don't care. When the other two release new consoles, it's a big deal. Even PC games are affected.

who said anything about rushing to release the PS5 and Xbox 4?

Sony and MS didn't rush to release the PS4 and Xbox One. they came out a year after the Wii U launched. they are all still part of the same console generation though.

 

[Yoshi178]

Sony always releases their PlayStation within a year of the Xbox. They have to, because similar games appear on the same consoles and people want better graphics. With Nintendo, that doesn't happen anymore. You buy a Nintendo for Nintendo games. It doesn't matter if it's only a marginal upgrade in terms of power. People will buy it anyway, for the Nintendo games and whatever the newest gimmick is.

those reasons you just gave literally have NOTHING to do with each other.


Nintendo didn't release the Switch because they knew people would buy it because of the gimmick. hardly anyone bought the Wii U so that argument you just gave already makes no sense.

Nintendo released the Switch because they knew the Wii U was a hardware sales failure and the Switch is Nintendo's way of getting the company back in the market to compete for, oh i don't know, maybe SALES. you know?, the exact same thing that Sony and Microsoft try to make?

 

[gorfias]

It?s good that Nintendo is doing their own thing imo. As long as Sony and Microsoft compete directly (Sony has typically released first, aside from last gen), it?s good to have a unique third option that eschews the norm. Being kid friendly has done them well so far, since there?s no shortage of kids in the world and parents willing to spend money on them.

 

[Mothro]

A new generation begins when the first next gen console is released. In this case, the Switch marked the beginning of the 9th generation. I don't see the point in changing the rules just because Sony and Microsoft decided to create upgraded consoles instead of new consoles.

 

[Yoshi178]

I didn't say they did. I said people will buy it anyway, for the Nintendo games and whatever the newest gimmick is.

yeah just like they bought the Wii U for it's "gimmick".

They could release their next Nintendo in the middle of Sony and Microsoft's next generation, and it still wouldn't have a huge effect on the rest of the industry. They're doing their own thing now. What I said is true. You're just misinterpreting and being overly defensive, as usual.

you still haven't explained at all why the Nintendo's hardware generations are so radically different from Sony's and Microsofts.

at the end of the day they are all still videogame console manufacturers and they are all competing for the same market. they just go about competing for that market in different ways. just because of that, it still doesn't mean that they're all different console generations. going off your views we may as well say that Nintendo is on their 8th generation, Sony is on their 4th generation and that Microsoft is only on their 3rd console generation.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I didn't say they did. I said people will buy it anyway, for the Nintendo games and whatever the newest gimmick is.

yeah just like they bought the Wii U for it's "gimmick".

They could release their next Nintendo in the middle of Sony and Microsoft's next generation, and it still wouldn't have a huge effect on the rest of the industry. They're doing their own thing now. What I said is true. You're just misinterpreting and being overly defensive, as usual.

you still haven't explained at all why the Nintendo's hardware generations are so radically different from Sony's and Microsofts.

at the end of the day they are all still videogame console manufacturers and they are all competing for the same market. they just go about competing for that market in different ways. just because of that, it still doesn't mean that they're all different console generations.

I think Ezekiel?s point might be that Nintendo, being the routinely the objectively least powerful major console on the market, cannot pull the industry as a whole into a ?next generation.? They can do, as they have done, and release ?another console,? but their ?next-ness? is on a different level from the major market, i.e.: PCs, Sony and Microsoft. No, Nintendo?s chunk of the gaming market is not inconsequential, but seeing as they pretty much lack/don?t require much-if-any significant third-party support, you don?t see many major developers/publishers looking to gear their efforts to develop for their hardware, and the moment that the industry collectively begins to develop for new hardware is arguably when a ?next gen? truly begins.

If we have to qualify it, we can say ?the bar? for a new generation of gaming is one being pulled up by PCs, pushed up by Sony and Microsoft, and delightfully ignored by Nintendo.

going off your views we may as well say that Nintendo is on their 8th generation, Sony is on their 4th generation and that Microsoft is only on their 3rd console generation.

You?re not entirely wrong; I feel the console ?generations? are largely an arbitrary (if manufactured) measurement as simply a broad indicator of when the major competitors looks to compete on a higher level of hardware.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't know if the Switch counts as Gen 9... it's basically a Wii U with a more versatile portable gimmick. Maybe Gen 8.5?

 

[Mad World]

We discussed earlier how hard it is to measure generations for PCs. I have an old i7-930 with a new rx 480 and it can play about anything. But my PS3 is obsolete compared to a PS4. And that is that.

Back in the day, NES was bitching about Sega coming out with a new 16 bit systems. Why, they asked. No need for this! But Sega did it and NES had to keep up, and did with the SNES.

I worry that without the competition, the console people would sit on their laurels and us consumers would suffer for it.

I wouldn't completely discount what he says. I notice the same trend with Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Seems to be too much to be coincidence.

 

[Yoshi178]

I don't know if the Switch counts as Gen 9... it's basically a Wii U with a more versatile portable gimmick. Maybe Gen 8.5?

and the PS4 is is basically a PS1 with prettier graphics and a touchpad on the controller...

 

[Yoshi178]

you don?t see many major developers/publishers looking to gear their efforts to develop for their hardware

what do you think the Playstation move and Kinect were? the only reason those things even exist in the first place is because Sony and Microsoft saw how well Nintendo succeeded in sales with the Motion controlled gaming with the Wii.

hell Microsoft even made Kinect 2.0 a major focus of the Xbox One at launch and was planning to include it in every xbox one package until consumers complained about being "forced" to pay for it.

 

[bluegate]

We're still very much in Generation 8, games are still being created with the baseline set by the PS4 and the Xbox One in November 2013, the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X are mere in-between upgrades that try to hook into the 4K hype.

Will we ever be in Generation 9? Of course, the moment the PS5 and the Xbox 25^9 are released and their system specs will be used as the baseline for which most games will be developed and older consoles will no longer be "forward compatible" with these new devices.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I don't know if the Switch counts as Gen 9... it's basically a Wii U with a more versatile portable gimmick. Maybe Gen 8.5?

Generations aren't defined by hardware power.

 

[Xprimentyl]

you don?t see many major developers/publishers looking to gear their efforts to develop for their hardware

what do you think the Playstation move and Kinect were? the only reason those things even exist in the first place is because Sony and Microsoft saw how well Nintendo succeeded in sales with the Motion controlled gaming with the Wii.

hell Microsoft even made Kinect 2.0 a major focus of the Xbox One at launch and was planning to include it in every xbox one package until consumers complained about being "forced" to pay for it.

Move and Kinect were Sony?s and Microsoft?s attempt to usurp Nintendo?s niche share of the market; not because they needed it or because it?s the direction the industry was naturally headed, no; like chipmunks with both cheeks full, Sony and Microsoft decided enough *wasn?t*, and tried grasping with any and all free limbs to hoard more; Kinect and Move are the nuts that fell out of their greedy arms. Mind you, no dev was committed to developing for those peripherals, neither produced a AAA, must-have, console selling app or IP, and in the end, save for myriad, laughable PR faux pas, neither company suffered major, irrecuperable losses for their attempts at reproducing/improving upon Nintendo?s success with motion gaming. (And Kinect 2.0 was simply MS?s falling for their own bullshit and doubling down on an idea that was basically dead on its feet.) Yes, many devs attempted to incorporate Kinect and Move functionality (because it was there and ?why not,?) but no major players developed or hung their name on games focused purely for them.

I?m not insinuating Nintendo isn?t a valid component of the industry. Hell, I knew better when my mother, who?d never touched a videogame in her then +60 years of life, went out and got a Wii, but I also knew that no one at Bungie, Naughty Dog or Infinity Ward saw her as a critical part of the gaming demographic worth developing for or that her purchase and the hundreds of thousands like hers were the heralds of the new age of gaming that might threaten to leave them behind. Nintendo doesn?t compete directly with Sony and Microsoft just as McDonald?s isn?t a threat to the Ruth Chris steakhouse down the street, and before anyone cites sale figures, this is despite the fact that McDonald?s Big Mac has probably outsold Ruth Chris? finest steak 100,000 to 1; everyone?s got to eat and a $2 burger is cheaper and more accessible than a $50 steak. I don?t know of any serious gamer who?s said ?If the next Uncharted or Halo suck, the Switch will become my console of choice? simply because Nintendo is an entirely different and predominantly more casual gaming experience. I know it sounds condescending, but Nintendo is like last year?s smartphone; you give it to your pre-teen or grandmother when you get the latest and greatest smartphone for yourself; both phones can make calls and text, but there?s a clear delineation between the two when it comes to the total package.

So no, Nintendo cannot alone, simply by pushing out new hardware, usher in a ?new generation? of gaming They?re tangential; the best they can do is offer more, niche-y gimmicks for the current age. Insignificant? Not at all; there?s a serious, more accessible portion of the industry quartered off just for them, but until they have the hardware and third-party support that puts them on the same level as Sony and Microsoft (and let?s not even take it to PCs,) they simply cannot captain the ship of the gaming industry.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't know if the Switch counts as Gen 9... it's basically a Wii U with a more versatile portable gimmick. Maybe Gen 8.5?

Generations aren't defined by hardware power.

Looking At this thread, everybody seems clear on what doesn't define a generation but not on what does.