I'm late to the party, but here are my two cents:
Is the 8th generation a disappointment? Yes. Has it continued many of the negative trends begun in earnest during the seventh generation, including micro-transactions; online paywalls; the proliferation of DLC, on disc or otherwise; day one patches; out-of-control development and advertising budgets; lack of backward compatibility, which opens the floodgates to last-gen ports and "remasters"; and, in the case of many high-profile studios, a deep focus on graphics, character design, and story at the expense of involving, rewarding gameplay? Yes.
But is it the worst generation in video game history? Far from it. The first generation, with its experimental hardware and Pong clones, provided a dreary list of games. The second generation brought the world many ground-breaking and revolutionary titles but, in general, the truly great games were few and far between.
So the 8th generation is certainly better than the 1st and 2nd generations. By the time it ends, the 8th might also be better than the 3rd and 7th generations. Will it touch the greatness of the 4th, 5th, and 6th generations, in my opinion the golden age of video games? Probably not. But who knows. Among the detritus that defines modern video gaming are a handful of masters -- including Shigeru Miyamoto, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Hideo Kojima, Koichi Hayashida, Eiji Aonuma, Tetsuya Takahashi, Neil Druckmann, Michel Ancel, and Ken Levine -- who are capable of making masterworks with the proper talent, funding, and support.
tl;dr version: When historians look back on the period between 2011 and 2019, they'll probably see a middling generation that perpetuated the decline of the industry begun during the seventh gen, not the worst in the history of the medium.
