Nintendo Switch: Last of the 8th Gen consoles, or first of the 9th Gen consoles?

[Kalahari Inkantation]

Discuss.

[TooB]

Switch is Wii u's replacement, so it's the same gen still

[Thyme]

Switch is Wii u's replacement, so it's the same gen still

yeah my reasoning also

the wii u was so much of a blunder that the switch just took its 8th gen slot

[Thyme]

perhaps a more sensible answer: generations are dumb

[Nyerp]

switch is a 7th gen console but a 9th gen handheld

[Thyme]

switch is a 7th gen console but a 9th gen handheld

damn

[bluaki]

perhaps a more sensible answer: generations are dumb

Yes. Nintendo is basically ignoring the Sony and Microsoft generation cycle and releasing new TV consoles every 5-6 years. Wii U's failure definitely resulted in a much faster phase-out period than normal (discontinued months before Switch even released) and might have expedited Switch's release date by at most a year, but Switch is still within Nintendo's normal generation cycle.

1985 NES -> 1991 SNES -> 1996 N64 ->
2001 GameCube -> 2006 Wii -> 2012 Wii U -> 2017 Switch
2000 PS2 -> 2006 PS3 -> 2013 PS4 -> 2020+ ???
2002 Xbox -> 2005 360 -> 2013 Xbone -> 2020+ ???

Switch's 2017 is basically halfway between the PS4's 2013 release and PS5's unannounced-but-expected 2020~2021 release so it doesn't make sense to lump it in a generation, especially since at the rate Nintendo's going they'll make a new console in 2022-2023 which is closer to PS5's release date than Switch is.

If you really want to put it in a generation shared with Sony and Microsoft, use a name like Generation 8.5 to include PS4 Pro (2016), Xbox One X (2017), and Switch (2017). The idea of generations is basically dying since incremental non-breaking upgrades make a lot more sense with current hardware.

PS5 will probably be fully backwards compatible with PS4 games and Sony might even let developers make PS4 games perform better on PS5 like a PS4 Pro Pro, which combined with PS4's large install base can result in an extremely slow drip of new PS5-exclusive games and basically means Gen9 is not really a new fully-distinct generation in the same sense as every console generation before it. The biggest thing that might encourage developers to target PS5 is probably the BDXL discs but huge day-1 updates already effectively give the same result on BD-ROM.

[TooB]

"PS4 Pro Pro..."

I hope it's actually called this instead of PS5

[bluaki]

"PS4 Pro Pro..."

I hope it's actually called this instead of PS5

Well PS4 Pro Pro is basically what you get when you make another new console that can play PS4 games and has incrementally better processing power than the PS4 Pro. The days of drastic improvements like PS1 -> PS2 are long gone.

The only difference that really matters is that presumably this time developers can make new games that don't work on the PS4. Maybe they'll redesign the controller with basically no new features and make a new VR headset but that stuff really doesn't matter much.

[C.Mongler]

Gens are dead, Jim.