The Nintendo Switch is generation...

[Signalstar]

RolStoppable said:

super_etecoon said:

This is true, so would you answer Gen 1 or just list it as a Gen 8 hybrid?

Switch is generation 9.

1. It's the successor to both the 3DS and Wii U, and successors don't belong to the same generation. The only exceptions are unsuccessful systems that were supplanted quickly during the very early stages of generations, and the original third generation (Atari 5200 etc.) that got wiped because said generation had no winner. The NES was actually refered to as fourth generation in writeups during its time, but eventually the original second and third generations got combined into one and therefore the NES turned into generation 3.

2. Switch released six years after the first generation 8 console (3DS). That's too long of a timeframe to get around calling Switch generation 9.

3. Processing power is meaningless as generations are defined through time, hence why handhelds are grouped together with home consoles despite vast differences in power.

4. The common argument that competition defines generations can't be taken seriously until the people who say that start to call the Dreamcast generation 5. But they won't do that, because they know that the Dreamcast is the successor of the Saturn. Despite the Dreamcast featuring all the counter-arguments that are held against Switch being generation 9 in a more pronounced fashion, people arbitrarily choose to call the Dreamcast gen 6 and Switch gen 8.

Furthermore, competition cannot define generations, because it would be ridiculous to say that generations are stopping because Nintendo now holds a monopoly in the portable console market. Switch does not belong to the same generation as the 3DS, no matter how much people keep insisting.

For only the 2nd time in my life I agree with Rol.