I wasn't quoting anybody so it wasn't referring to anyone in specific.  However, on topic of whether the system is next generation it is related because the issue people are having here is with graphics and power.  Whether or not the Wii U is next generation is not arguable.  It is next generation, due to the terms meaning in any context.  It has modern (relatively) architecture.  It is releasing in the time frame of when the next set of consoles are releasing.  Its power is well enough over the last generation to put it into the bracket of next generation in that sense, too.  

@bold. That wasn't my question, but it's ok.

Yes you're right that it's arguable, as you wrote "(relatively)" you could argue that in the 2nd sense it is next gen. You could argue.

Wii U is next gen, no ifs ands or buts. Dreamcast was next gen and many of its games were just ports of existing PSX/N64 franchises with slightly better graphics. It got blown away when PS2 came along less than a year later. Jaguar was next gen despite having a library that overall looked no better than some SNES games. And it too got blown away when the Saturn / PSX launched within a year later.

Graphics aren't everything, and they certainly don't determine when new console generations start.

Actually there is ...

Third party publishers don't like add-ons because only a small portion of the userbase will own them, and few people who are interested in their games will be willing to buy an expensive add-on to play them, so they usually only give these add-ons token support; essentially, they devote a handful of third rate developers to work on low budget games that will be released in the wake of the add-on as cheap cash-ins on the device's popularity.

The fact that it is not standard equipment means that it will never be well supported. While they're just rumours at this point in time, the reason why the rumours indicate that the next XBox will include Kinect at launch is because third party publishers will never give Kinect real support as an add-on.

And that's why I'll return you to my post about push. If there is no backing behind a peripheral, it becomes an accessory, not an upgrade or an expansion. Expansions work only if they're properly integrated, like for  example Brood War, which almost all Starcraft players joined because it was just right.

Also, the point you make on cash-ins may give an answer to the unexpected and possibly bloated success of the Wii, just sayin'. It all boils back to causality. If an accessory has no appeal, then it is not worthy of being a full cycle-enducing piece of tech, let alone warrant a new console.

I'm not sure if you see my point, but it's there.

what I can take from that "article" is that capcom is going to try to have monhun, resident, street fighter and their other franchises on evey single media possible and with as much DLC as possible. Bad start for the next gen...

Brood War is a game, not a hardware expansion on an existing console.  Big difference.

The Wii Fit board is the most popular hardware expansion of all time and look at all the support that got.  No hardware expansions will ever come close to a new console release.

A software expansion to a popular videogame is substantially different than a hardware add-on to a console ...

Now, there is an argument to be made that third party publishers treated the Wii more like it was an add-on than an actual console, and when one wave of cash-in shovelware was finished they released another, but the Wii actually received steady game releases from third party developers, with the occassional good game, because it was a new system. Had the Wiimote been an add-on to the Gamecube it might have been able to attract 25 to 50 third party games (almost all of which would be awful) in a 2 year period; and after that almost no new games would be released.

If you want hardware to actually be used by developers it has to be shipped with the system.

You can't argue that GBC didn't "correspond to" N64. N64, which was of the same generation as PS1. So GBC was of the same generation to, and therefore "corresponded to" PS1 in that fashion. GBA clearly "corresponded to" GCN; they had a range of hardware and software connections, and even launched the same year. GBA corresponds to the 6th generation of consoles in this way. DS and PSP may have launched a couple of years before their home console big brothers, but they were undeniably of the same generation. Now 3DS and Wii U are going to have cross-play functionality. They belong to the same generation. The eighth generation.

Vita's cross-play with PS3 is a weird case stemming from the PS3's long lifespan. Undoubtedly when PS4 launches, it will feature more Vita cross-play functions than PS3 currently does... assuming Vita is still around to see the PS4 launch.

Nintendo's handheld consoles have always had a close relationship to their corresponding home consoles. They are the same generation -- especially when we start talking about software, which is what the context of my statement was. Just look at the Bit.Trip series. Not a very impressive technical feat at all, but it would be beyond silly to suggest that those are 4th-generation games or something. They weren't made in 1992. The fact that New Super 2 doesn't do anything that wasn't technically possible on GameCube doesn't make it a 6th-gen game. It was developed in 2011/2012, by developers who had experiences no developers in 2003 had. It likely incorporates programming techniques not yet imagined a decade ago. There's no argument to be had here; the tech isn't what determines a game OR a console's generation.

SEMANTICS

I HATE THEM

A console's "generation" is just a number to be thrown around. Whether Wii U is 8th-gen, 7th-gen, 12th-gen or 1st-gen, its "classification" is completely irrelevant and doesn't change a thing about its capabilities, its release date, its competitors, its third-party support, its launch price, or its color scheme.

Well, damn.  I had a feeling your English was too good to make this mistake.

It seemed like no one else noticed it and I just couldn't pass it up.  My fault.