| Magnific0 said: My understanding is that a generation is defined based more on system technology than in Market competition. There have been many consoles that were released during the climax of one era, without belonging to it . For instance, 3DO released in 1993 is part of the 32-bit era (as well as Amiga CD-32, etc.) so this era clearly overlaps with the 16-bit era, a whole different generation that started circa 1987 which also overlaps with the 8-bit generation. Neo Geo would be in a league of its own, or much more in the league of Arcade systems of its time than console systems. By contrast, Nintendo Wii is considered in the same generation of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 even if it uses last generation technology. I don't have too much trouble accepting the Wii as part of the "7th Generation" of videogames, which is defined as much by technological power as it is by new ways of interactivity, mainly online community/extended online gameplay. However, even in the online community department many would find the gap between the Wii and the other consoles pretty stretched to be considered in the same league, considering last generation systems had online capabilities and some of them (Xbox) had even more developed features (than Wii's). So, saying the Wii is a Sixth Generation system produced in the 7th Generation era is not a farfetched affirmation. Also, it's important to note: The most advanced not always win. 1st Gen: Videogame's prehistoric era. Not very relevant in terms of market share. 2nd Gen: It's quite messy so I'll just say Atari 2600 dominated even when other consoles were more advanced like Coleco and Mattel Intellevision. There were just too many consoles released between 1978 and 1983 (and too many horrible games as well) that led to the infamous "videogame crash" of the industry. 3rd Gen: NES, Sega Master System, Atari 7800 (More advanced: SMS Winner: NES) 4th Gen: Turbografx 16, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo (More advanced: SNES Winner: SNES) 5th Gen: 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Amiga CD-32, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation (More advanced : PS Winner: PS) 6th Gen: Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Microsoft Xbox (More advanced: Xbox Winner: PlayStation 2)
Any thoughts?
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You forgot N64... and it was actually the most advanced of it's generation.
