Based on what? It was released in 1993, the SNES was still in its prime. It's 5th gen because they have no idea where to put it because their Gens are defined by the success of the SNES and the Genesis (the two main platforms at the time). Not something I define a gen off of.

That's why the term is weak at best, it's full of loopholes like that one.

I'll have to agree with Viper1, some people are just seeing things. Capcom only says it's still not time to put all their resources into developing next gen games, that they will wait until the rest of the consoles are closer or are released. At least that's how I see it.

And happydolphin, WiiU is a next gen console. Generations never had anything to do with power, just with the moment consoles were released. The Neo Geo was a lot more powerful than the other consoles, yet all of them are in the same 16-bit gen. The Nintendo 64 or the Atari Jaguar were 64-bit consoles and yet they are included with the Playstation and the Saturn in the 32-bit generation.

It's the same thing with graphics cards. An Nvidia GTX 580 outperforms an AMD HD 7770 and performs about the same as a GTX 660Ti, yet both cards are froma newer gen than the 580 and no one discusses that.

Do you think that the PS1 is in the same generation of the N64?

Can't say I've heard anyone in the indsutry disagree the 3DO was 5th generation.   I've personally spoken to a few people at various studios about the generations and none thought it differently.

I don't get why you are so incessant to suggest console generations are not based on the principle of successor/predecessor and chronology.   

If anything, this method would encourage new IPs. One of the main causes of sequelitis is the cost & time to develop a game can be so long, that developers are scared to take risks. With less risky games, developers would be more likely to release new IPs.

Because for one it's based on much more than that, if that. For one, it's based on a context. In this context, home consoles.

If you were to compare PC Graphics cards, they have their own generations, as would cell phones, tablets and super computers.

So, there's more to it. But to completely disregard the importance of technical advancements makes the whole concept pointless, as it becomes completely arbitrary. One manufacturer could release 3 home consoles by the time another releases just one. Iphon, case in point, has a generation every year or so. If they adapted the same business model in the home console space, it would be called a generational jump for apple.

Where the line is drawn, where it isn't, it's all arbitrary, and the definition is gaping with holes. If we don't agree on the definition, let's at least agree that it is not without its failings.

I agree it's a flawed means of categorization on all fronts but it's one most accepted by the industry itself.   Pardon me if I side with them and my own industry (media).

There's no pardonning, it has nothing to do with you or me. All it is is trying to get to the bottom of something I consider to be a very confusing term that has roots in technological breakthroughs and was converted by an industry to mean something, and people (like you), not letting reason dictate the meaning of a term.

What will you do when what I said happens? When a manufacturer makes 3 consoles by the time another makes just 1 in the span of a traditional generation time period (6 to 10 years)? Will you ignore the first 3? All I'm saying is you can say that's the used term, but you can't say it makes perfect sense.

Whether it's the used term or not in the end doesn't matter, when people say next-gen, what they usually mean is "something that wasn't there before", "at the forefront of technology", within a given context.

With that I think I've said all I needed to say.

Exactly.  That's really all that needs to be said pertaining to this article.

Seriously, did this McFerran clown use to work at Eurogamer or something?  "Let's twist the words around for a misleading headline to get hits to our article." 

Pathetic.

The Dreamcast came out well when the 5th-gen heavyweights were still in their prime (part of the console's problem), yet it is indisputably part of gen 6. 3DO had the same thing going for it. I mean, Saturn, PlayStation, and Jaguar followed only a year later, it was only Nintendo that was sluggish getting into the 5th generation (due in part to the PS fiasco, no doubt)