Shadow1980 said:
@Bolded: The Saturn lasted longer than the Dreamcast with worse sales. The Wii U lasted longer than either of them. The fact is, the DC was on the NA market for a mere 18 months before it was discontinued (only 28 months in Japan). It was prematurely terminated before it had a chance to have a normal life cycle. I fail to see how that in any way challenges any concept of console generations. It was not a normal situation. @Italicized. Because assuming a 2020 or 2021 release date for the PS5 and Xbox 4 the Switch will likely be at or past its peak. By late 2022, the Switch will likely be well on the way out, if it hasn't already been replaced yet. The Switch will have spent its prime years competing against the PS4 & XBO. Now, if the Switch ends up being less front-loaded and longer-lasting than is the norm for Nintendo systems, I might be willing to change my stance. I won't argue that it's Gen 9, but I would say that it might too ambiguous of a case to neatly classify into one generation or the other, and that Nintendo systems, by running on a shorter cycle than PS & Xbox, might need to be excluded from the numerical generations (because it'll start to get ridiculous if we see people argue that Nintendo is already on Gen 10 a mere two years after the PS5 & Xbox 4 are out). But with the way things stand now, I don't see how anyone can classify it as anything other than Gen 8. |
The Switch is a hybrid of handheld and console. So, it has as much chance of enjoying a Nintendo handheld lifespan as it does a Nintendo home console. If it enjoys the lifespan of the DS (9 years) or even the 3DS (over 7 years and still in production), it will still be in production in 2024 (maybe in and upgraded, mid-gen refresh version?). If PS5 or Next Xbox release in 2020, that would put in competition with next gen systems longer than previous. This is all hypothetical of course, but still a possibility.
