st0pnsw0p said:
The makers of ROB the robot and the Virtual Boy, obviously. No one has the "right" to define what constitutes a console generation; That is decided collectively by everyone who uses the term. If everyone decided that a console generation encmpasses every system released in a decade, and started using it as such, that's what it would mean. If everyone decided that it depends on power, that's what it would mean. Currently it means roughly that this batch of competing systems were all released relatively close to each other and relatively far from the previous batch. But if things changed so that Sony always released a new console 2 years after Microsoft, Microsoft 2 years after Nintendo and Nintendo 2 years after Sony, the phrase Console Generation as it is used today would become useless to describe the situation, since it wouldn't be so much a batch of new consoles as it would be a constant stream of new consoles. If Sony released consoles every 4 years, Microsoft every 6 and Nintendo every 8, after 20 years we'd be on the 6th gen of Sony consoles, 4th of Nintendo consoles and 3rd of Microsoft consoles. Defining which system falls into which generation with our current definition would be a headache because the current usage of the word has never dealt with a similar situation before: All the major consoles from each generation have always released in a span of time no greater than 2 years (the only possible exception being the Dreamcast, but only if you consider it a "major" console). Because those situations I mentioned are unprecedented, they would cause us to reevaluate how we define a console generation, and we would either redefine it so we can still apply it in those situuations, or keep the meaning intact and possibly come up with a new term for that situation. Likewise, the situation given in the OP would be very different from any we've seen so far. Wii U released very close to XBOne and PS4, so they're obviously in the same generation, but if Nintendo released another system halfway between the next Sony and MS systems, and then released another one just within a year of those systems' releases, we might interpret that as either a mid-gen system, or the entirety of the 9th generation. However, looking back at the definition of console generations, "A batch of competing systems released relatively close together and relatively far from the previous batch", we find the word "competing". Who would the Wii 3 be competing against? The other companies' 8th gen systems. From this point of view it would make sense to call it a part of the 8th gen still, thugh still separate from the other 8th-gen systems. As such, "8.5th gen" seems like the perfect way to describe it. |
Yes and no. It's probably a mistake to even compare Microsoft and Sony generations with Nintendo because Nintendo really hasn't directly competed with them since the Gamecube. When the Wii launched we hadn't figured this out, but in retrospect it's clear that we've had two separate console generations going on concurrently in the market.
Sony's releases are consistently longer than Nintendo's, too, and Microsoft is probably going to synchronize with Sony for the foreseeable future because they ARE in tight competition. It's inevitable that Nintendo will have an extra launch mixed in eventually because Nintendo is NOT in close competition with either Sony or Microsoft (as the console generation definition would wish to imply) and Nintendo operates on a slightly shorter window.
So which one makes more sense; saying a console is "gen 8.5" or saying Microsoft and Sony skipped a generation? I say the latter because as tempting as it is to average all three console makers to make "a generation," Nintendo isn't really in tight competition with them. The Wii U will have a completed product lifecycle and not a half generation. Different tempo, sure, but still a completed generation. Saying Sony and Microsoft skipped the gen is the only way to convey that. Saying Nintendo launches an 8.5 gen implies product confusion.
The Wii 3 probably will be a confused product, but not because of that. The Wii U will have had a planned EOL.
