The Wii is a gen 6 console (Hiroshi Yamauchi)

[Viper1]

happydolphin said:

I understand what you mean, and I know that marketing-wise the Wii is a gen 7 console. However it's a fact that when it comes to what was at the root of the new construct of console generations was technological advancements. In that more traditionalist and purist perspective, the Wii is technically a gen 6 console, though the market has now adapted and since it's rebranded it is now a gen 7 console. I understand all that.

What I was trying to say is that for Yamauchi, and the Nintendo leadership of the time, it is not something they themselves considered next-gen, for reasons of computing and graphical performance.

That's really all this is about, hearing what one of the 3 leaders of the industry had to say about it was somewhat important in my view.

You still have it backwards.  Generations are not measured by the technology in the box but by the succession of flagship consoles.   As I said before, Wii could have had the power of a Magnovox Oddyssey (a 1st gen console) or the K supercomputer in Japan (most powerful computer on Earth) and it still would have been a 7th generation console because it was released after the GC which was a 6th generation console which was released after the N64 which was a 5th generation console which was released after the SNES which was a 4th generation console which was released after the NES which was a 3rd generation console.

Nintendo never marketed the Wii as 7th generation but rather as something new and innovative.  Even their initial console code name was 'revolution'.  But again that's seperate from actual classification.   They could have said, "It's not next gen, it's gesture/IR input, low tech of love gen" and it still owuld hae been a 7th generation console.

And they never considering Wii a new gen because of its lack of high performance ahrdware btu because of its innovative input.  As I said, it could have had the power of the K uspercomputer and Nintendo would have still looked at it differently.  Because they always look at their products differently.