By definition it is next gen. It's a console released during the 8th generation. It doesn't matter how powerful it is or what features it lacks, it's it's an 8th gen console. I find it strange that people still argue about this. We should be complaining about the weak hardware and lack of features the expensive gamepad brings to the system instead of arguing about what something as stupid as "next gen" means.

I like retro games, I like 80s music, I hate swagfags and think they're stupid. yup, I'm a last gen human

you admit that you're Sony fans, nothing wrong with this but in contrast to Nintendo fans who play Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware, the Sony fans spend entire generation to play vastly inferior multi-platform games on their hardware.

In other words they spend enormous amount of time to deceive himself that quality of graphics and conversion is not important so i understand, after so much time the frustration is over and they need to show everybody that they're after all -mature.

What a joke this entire 16-35 year old male demography is, what a mess this industry cultivate, i can't understand, it's nothing but joke

fuck me,how could i forget to be next gen you have to do the same shit as the other consoles. Wii U has to be conformists. Nintedo is so fucking stupid for trying something different. Sony and Microsoft defined the rules  because they have been in the business longer than anyone. 

Holy beaver these arguments are quite literally the silliest thing of all time.

The only thing that defines a console as "next-gen," is whether or not it is the "next generation" of console hardware for that particular company. For example, the Wii is still 7th gen, regardless of how much less powerful it is than the 360, simply because it was the next iteration of Nintendo's hardware. The Wii U is the next installment of Nintendo's hardware after the Wii, so therefore it is the next generation.

That's all that next-gen means. If you want to argue that it's not in the same category as the PS4 and X-Box One in terms of power, go right ahead. But that's a completely different argument. Saying that something doesn't qualify as 8th gen simply because you don't think it matches up well with other competitors is like saying the iPhone 5 doesn't really count as the next generation of iPhone because it doesn't match up well with something that comes from Samsung.

At any rate, I think it's rather hard to claim that you have "nothing but respect" for a company, and then dismiss their console as a failure a mere six months after it launched. Plenty of gaming systems have turned things around after poor starts (most recently and notably being the 3DS, another Nintendo platform coincidentally) so let's hold off on the cries of failure until we're a little deeper into this next cycle of consoles.

Even Jesus is enjoying this!

Wii U's tech is dated compared to PS4 and the Bone, and in some aspects beaten/outfeatured even by 7th gen consoles (HDD storage, online services, trophies, etc), but it is 8th gen.

...Dude at this point I could care less if the face of generic military man #98 look better on console A compare to console B, because I gotta say, I'm over the "next gen magic" I'll rather have a faster framerate.

so am i! lol