According to Wikipedia we are now enjoing the 7th Generation of Console Gaming. Anyone who spend time playing games of the past can certainly remember the vast improvements in visual performance that each new console would bring.

If we put together screenshots of games from the VCS, NES, SNES, PS1, N64, PS2 it will be pretty obvious which is which. Even machines from the same generation would produce different images than their competitors with the NES and the SMS or the SNES and the GEN being completely different beasts.

The lines started to blur during the last generation and if the screenshots didn't include Mario, Kratos or Master Chief, being able to identify the hardware behind the image would be quite challenging (at least for still images).

It seems to me that the gap between the console generations is growing so small that there will be little to differentiate the current from the next gen.

I can help but wonder what the next Gen of consoles will have to offer (in terms of graphics) to make it stand out from the impressive visual offerings we currently enjoy. I mean resolution will not rise anytime soon (1080 will be the household standard for the next decades) and adding a few million polgons to the mix is not anything mindblowing.

If I'm right and MS and SONY can't come up with any impressive hardware soon, coupled with the cost of development of the current generation and the continuing investement for online infrastructure I have a feeling that this cycle will definetely last longer than any of the previous ones.

Your thoughts...?

Seriously???
No one?? you think that the next generation will be so much better than the current one?

sure, the graphical gap is smaller this generation, but the controller gap is huge. MS and Sony are rushing to catch up to Nintendo, not the other way around. obviously the big mover this generation was the control scheme. Next generation we could see an even better control scheme that blows this generation away, or we could see something totally different.

As for graphical improvements. There is always room to improve, so you'll see improvements, but the upgrade will be minimal. If graphics are the only reason to upgrade people won't be rushing out the door to get a new system (hence why Nintendo keeps saying Wii 2 won't just be Wii + HD)

For a moment i thought you meant the generation gap among gamers :P.Although that one is quite easy to see. I honestly don't see a point in creating consoles for a new generation if they are to be only Wii HD xbox720 etc. Greater processing power and better graphics just won't cut. That's already been done this gen wih ps3 and xbox 360 and if it weren't for the Wii, there wouldn't be any of this controller mess we have right now and things would tend to start getting boring.

Generations have always been about time. Why is the Atari Jaguar in with the PS1 and N64 when it's really more closely matched to the SNES (especially with mode 7 and/or Super FX)? The answer is time, of course.

Very few games are 1080p on consoles.  Not to mention the general lack of AA, poor frame rates, and tearing.  There are a lot of improvements in image quality that could happen.  Plus there are always going to be new things they can do such as tesselation.

I think the graphic gap is huge... maybe you are still playing games on SDTV's?? Or you're only playing on the Wii??

no gap?

you not played a current gen console?

graphics, technology, games, controls, online, media, all have moved forward significantly...

early PS2 games looked horrible, some were worse than N64 games. some late PS2 games look (even technically) better than some early X360 games. The same happens between every generation.... if you showed me some late NES games and early SNES game images I bet I would have trouble telling which is which without counting how many colours there are or something.

The only really obvious gap is the jump to 3D (although some SNES generation games had psuedo 3D) but that wasn't necessarily better looking games, just incredibly different.

How was the graphics gap small Nordlead?