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Nu-13 on 02 February 2020
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RolStoppable said:
Nu-13 said:

You're not making sense. Ps5 and xsx are basically coming 4 years after the switch. similar time gap between wii u and switch.

Neither the PS5 or XSX is a successor to Switch. Also, Switch is a successor to both the 3DS and Wii U, so you are looking at a gap of six years.

The one thing that is really throwing people off is Sony's exit from the handheld market. If Sony hadn't done that and released a Vita successor in 2016/2017 where it would have been due at the latest, then we would be having two 9th gen consoles on the market and nobody would claim that Switch is 8th gen. Because if Vita's successor is not in the same generation as the Vita (which it clearly would not have been), then it obviously makes no sense to count Switch towards the same generation as the 3DS.

The reason why it's clear that Sony consoles play such a large role in the categorization of generations is the stint we had on VGC in 2010 where a lot of people refused to acknowledge the upcoming 3DS as the first 8th generation console. But in 2011 when more news about the PSP successor came out, it dawned on people that they have no choice but to count the 3DS as 8th gen because otherwise they wouldn't be able to call the Vita next gen.

Sony's exit from the handheld market doesn't mean that the generational count is suspended. That's why the thought that Switch could be 8th gen has never crossed my mind because it's abundantly clear that Switch marks a new generation. Different concept, new games, new ecosystem, it's all there. Unfortunately, way too many people in the gaming community use Sony as the measuring stick for everything. That's how we got where we are today with lots of people seriously believing that the 3DS and Switch are part of the same generation. All those same people understand that the Saturn and Dreamcast belong to different generations, but for some reason they keep stumbling when it comes to identifying Switch for what it is.

And? As I said, the only thing that defines a system's generation is when it released. The switch isn't 9th gen because it succeeds the wii u, but because of the 4 year gap between it and the start of the generation (for home consoles, 6 years after 3ds). In due time, this will be accepted (some will accept it for wrong reasons).