What Defines Next-Gen?

Generation is a tricky term that we usually use to discriminate against all the people born in a particular time period. Usually, they have some kind of rough definition, like the Baby Boomers who were the result of post-war celebration boning; Gen X, who eventually got sick of their parents crap and Gen Y, which is the media’s scapegoat for everything wrong in the world today. When it comes to gaming, however, our definitive boundaries are obtuse to the point of shallow.

[Npugz7]

Not the WiiU!!!

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

I hope not. It's not just hardware it's raising the bar. They could repackage a suped up snes and call it next gen?

[Kamikaze135]

Next gen is the next generation of hardware a company releases.

[MasterCornholio]

That is true. The PS3, 360 and Wii belong to the same console generation but due to the Wiis weak hardware many people consider it a Gen behind those consoles.

Motorola RAZR i

[ShinMaster]

A new wave of higher caliber games.

The Wii U is doing just more of the same that has been done on current systems for the past 6 or 7 years.

[level 360]

Wii U is just a slight although a much more mass appealing upgrade from this generation.

Next PS4 and XBox720 ( or whatever their true designations would be confirmed ) are "the" next-gen consoles.

[TacticAce]

IMO you have two next gen terminologies.

Company Next Generation- Which is of course literally the latest iteration of the said device. Example would be Nintendo going from the Wii to the Wii U.

Next Generation Experience- This is when a console takes a technological leap from its predecessor thus pushing games to a new experience such as graphical capabilities, better AI, Better sound, more npc's on screen etc.

In the case of the Wii U I believe the Wii U checks off on both accounts in terms of Nintendo and Nintendo only. The Wii U is the Next Generation of Nintendos home entertainment console, and also it is a Next Gen Experience when compared to the Nintendo Wii.

But Its obvious from an industry standpoint if you stack up the Wii U against the Ps3 and Xbox 360 that they are virtually on the same level as far as hardware give or take.

[porkChop]

The CPU, the GPU, and the audio chip get more powerful, everything gets faster. Faster RAM, and more of it. A completely new OS that is both smoother and more feature-full. The controllers get either redesigned or refined. The online network gets completely reworked, with faster response times and more possibilities. The online store/market is completely redesigned from the ground up to be faster, and easier to navigate. Bigger and faster storage capacity. Bigger and faster media, be it disc-based or cartridge-based.

Simply put, everything gets better. A new controller, or better graphics, they don't make it a new generation all on their own. If everything doesn't get better, then it's really just a refresh of the current generation.

[SkullBlade169]

The date that the system was released...

You can have a crap system and it will still be part of the 8th generation if released now since the Wii-U is 8th generation and any worse systems will still be compared with it.

Likewise the Wii-U is 8th generation regardless if the PS4/Xbox 3 are better or not.

Unless of course it's a simple slimmed down console or small revision, then for example the new PS3, it still uses mostly the same hardware as the previous PS3 model so it's not next gen.

Besides, we're in the 8th generation now so PS3 and 360 are now previous generation anyway...