Nintendo WiiU is not a next-generation system!

[Joelcool7]

o_O.Q said:
i see a lot of people saying the jump won't be big but my question is - whats the point of launching a nextbox and ps4 unless they are significantly more powerful or have some kind of differentiating feature to their predecessors?

Nex-Box and PS4 will both be more powerful then PS3/360 and I would consider it significantly more powerful. I mean everything we know indicates the WiiU will be around 5x the power of PS3. Microsoft and Sony will both go for affordable hardware this time round because they want to actually profit. A new Kinect device is likely going to come bundled with the Nex-Box so don't expect Microsoft to really give us a power house this upcoming gen. Microsoft has seen where Nintendo has set the bar and they will ensure their hardware is competitively priced and powered. Sony might again have the most powerful system because they don't have to worry about an expensive control device like a camera or touch pad, unless they unveil a new control device. This means Sony can launch a competitive device with more power at the same cost as Microsoft and Nintendo's offerings. I'd expect Nintendo's console to price at 300-350$ and Nex-Box/PS4 at about 400$.

The point in launching next generation hardware without the huge leap we saw between PS2/PS3 is that the new hardware will offer new experiences and will be more powerful then the last generation. The new hardware will run games in 1080p a major selling feature for everyone with 1080p tv's. The controls will all be improved or revolutionized giving us new game experiences.

This will truly be a new generation even if all the consoles are on par with WiiU.

the-pi-guy said:

Business wise - if Sony and Microsoft, don't release a new console a new console for 5 more years, does that mean that they missed out on 8th generation? I don't think so, just might mean they don't think of it as 8th generation yet.
Anyway, why does everyone make such a big deal about this, its going to be a brand new awesome video game console from Nintendo.
Everyone is going to have opinions about it.

- even Pachter

Well this depends. If Nintendo launches WiiU then five years later launches its next system alongside Nex-Box , PS4 then yah they missed the generation. I mean would you consider all four consoles the same generation even though two are from the same company launched 5 years apart and are completely different systems?

The way I understand console generations is the cycle of say around 5 years in which the major companies launch their hardware all hardware launched during that time is one generation. But if a company launches a new console it is a new generation and if the other companies never released hardware during the last generation then effectively they missed it.