| Shadow1980 said: In another recent thread someone asked if the PS4K/4.5/Neo should be classified as an 8th or 9th generation system, and obviously the general consensus is that it's still 8th generation (discuss it in that thread). But that reminded me of a related conundrum I've been pondering for a while now. The NX is supposedly a significant leap from the Wii U, at least as powerful as the PS4 according to many rumors, so for the sake of argument let's assume that's the case. At first glance that would seem sufficient to garner it the label of a 9th-gen system. |
Generations aren't defined by power, they're defined by theoretical compatibility.
If a PS4.5 were released, and all PS4.5 titles also worked on PS4, just with lower resolution, etc, it would be the same generation. The New 3DS is pretty much the same generation as the 3DS because, with the exception of issues relating to power, any New 3DS title could run on a 3DS (to see this in practice, see Hyrule Warriors Legends).
Gamecube to Wii is a new generation because much of the underlying functionality of the Wii was altered, including input mechanisms, OS, etc.
This applies for individual cases, and not industry-wide considerations. For those, we basically look at release periods and select the generation that best matches the release period... but only if the system is a new generation for that series of systems.
So PS3, 360, and Wii all released around the same time. PS Vita and 3DS released around the same time. Even if the PS Vitwo, a truly new system, were released around the same time as the New 3DS, the New 3DS would remain part of the PSV/3DS generation, because it's not a new system, just a tweak of an existing system, while the PSV2 would be the start of a new generation.
NX will be 9th gen, because it will be a new generation following on from the Wii U, which was 8th gen, which followed on from the Wii, which was 7th gen, and followed on from the 6th gen Gamecube.
Note that there's no reason why Sony and MS can't simply not release a 9th gen system - they can jump straight to 10th gen, if they choose to stick with PS4/XBO for another 4+ years.
