Current Gen, Next Gen, Last Gen...yeah this is stupid

[superballs]

Ok I'm just going to go on a little rant.

Upon release of the XBOX 360 and PS3 (and to a lesser degree the Wii), I remember a lot of discussions of current gen vs next gen (at the time mostly referring to EANHL Hockey PC vs Consoles but I digress).

I'd like to see a place that actually designates console generations properly. This is just a pet peeve of mine but I'm kind of hoping it's not just me being crazy but when PS4 XBOX"whatever" are released does it make sense to refer to them as Current Gen while 360/PS3 would be considered Last Gen?

Doesn't something stop being Next Gen once it's released and current?

Ok i'll stop now

 

[Jeff Strong]

That always bugged me as well. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing the phrase "Next Gen" back then, and it certainly seemed a bit silly. Here's to hoping it doesn't happen again.

 

[Bonzo]

Marketing mumbo-jumbo, I guess. Everything always has to be new and fresh. And with next gen the future is now.

 

[trachea]

Yep. It's a marketing term. The only way it will go away is if it's replaced with a different marketing term... which will no doubt be even more infuriating.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

One solution might be to agree on absolute numbers. Wikipedia seems to think we're currently in the seventh generation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console#Seventh_generation

though obviously this is somewhat arbitrary, since, for instance, they lump the Atari 2600 and 5200 together into generation 2. It's:

Generation 1: home pongs and lightguns
Generation 2: Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Astrocade, etc. (I think this really ought to be divided into two or three sub-generations, but maybe I was just paying too much attention at the time.)
Generation 3: NES/Famicom: Mario conquers the world
Generation 4: SNES, Genesis, etc.
Generation 5: PlayStation, Saturn, N64
Generation 6: PS2, XBox, GameCube, Dreamcast
Generation 7: PS3, XBox 360, Wii
Generation 8: next XBox, Wii U, etc.

 

[superballs]

Yep. It's a marketing term. The only way it will go away is if it's replaced with a different marketing term... which will no doubt be even more infuriating.

I just had a mini waking nightmare of the next consoles being called "four gens from now" and masses shouting 'FEGFEN!' (FGFN)

I don't think the chill down my spine is from a goose walking across my grave as there are no geese in space.