For you .What factors determine a generation of video games?

A new product (New Cycle, New name, new hardware). Here in Gamespot, a lot of people: graphics........

For Cellphones and Computers.

-Every Year.

For Consoles and Gaming Handhelds.

-When a New one is Announced and it's not just an Update. (aka: When you can't play the latest game on a current console anymore.)

Oh God, let's not do this again. For me, it's a new generation of systems. Wii-U marks the new generation.

[spoiler] I like how I jumped in anyway :P [/spoiler]

When games start showing a next generation improvement.. such as graphics and potential and what not. For me is how the games evolve whether is good or bad. The Wii-U doesn't start next generation because it still has the same games from the current one... maybe when they make a next generation game then! it will start.

new gen is when a new console releases... not sure i totally agree but i can live with it.

new gen is when a new console releases... not sure i totally agree but i can live with it.

TheEroica

For me it's always when the majority of new games coming out are made for the newest consoles and do not appear on the older ones. That's when I feel the consoles have really moved to a new generation. There is always this period of a few months were the games are all multiplats on the last generation and new generation consoles. Eventually they stop bothering with the last generation consoles. That's when games can really start taking advantage of the new hardware because they aren't constricted by the limitations of the last gen.

With PC games it's a lot more ambiguous.

Systems in competition with each other.

example:

PS3 competed against Wii. Gen I

PS4 will compete against Wii U. Gen II

New Power, or at least some kind of advancment in that area. This is why I consider the Wii to be a last gen system and the Wii U, based off of what I have seen of it so far, looks like a current gen system and not a next gen.

PC doesnot have generations.SNIPER4321

One can easily argue that specific games usher in a new set of standards. Quake 2 back in the day, followed by Half-Life, followed by Half-Life 2 (arguments could be made for Far Cry or Doom 3), Battlefield 2 (first fully DX9 game with a lot of advanced features and extremely high quality), followed by Crysis 1.

Again as I said, much more ambiguous.

DX11 is the next big thing but I have yet to see a game actually truely take advantage of it 100%. Most games still use the DX10 renderer and have optional DX11 features ontop of them.

We haven't seen a game that is just built on 100% DX11 and uses things like tesssellations and DirectCompute as core technologies.

The generation of consoles is clearly marked by the introduction of a new videogame machine. NES July 15 1983 - ?July? 1988 (the Sega Genesis debuted in Japan) So the 8-bit 3rd Generation Lasted 5 years depending if that July debut of Sega MegaDrive a true 16 bit console. TG-16/PC Engine doesn't count as it is just a 8-bit console which debut in 1987 in Japan.

So in the U.S.A The 8-bit 3rd Generation is best known with NES Oct 1985-August 1989. Unchallenged until the Sega Genesis 16 bit ($350.00) and TurboGraphx-16 ($300.00) Which was the first time processing power of the "next generation" videogame consoles was featured to the mainstream market. This is when "16 bits" meant a huge deal. An important selling point of the then new consoles. NEC's TG-16 pulled an Atari Jaguar years before 1993. Famous do the math. But PC Engine/TG 16/Turbo duo is part of the 4th generation. Even if it is of lessor Processing "power" to the MegaDrive and Super Nintendo.

So it is both following a time line and the capabilities of the successor consoles. To describe each Generation of Videogame consoles.

Generations 2 and 1 The pre-Crash eras 1972-1977 1st generation "primordial" videogame devices. 2nd Generation the Atari 2600/AVS, Mattel Intellivision, Collocovision 1977-1983. More of a timeline. Even though these consoles were 8-bit they were referred as "4 bit" for some reason? and all Controllers were referred as "Paddles" Due to the Atari AVS coming with 2 joysticks and 2 'Paddle controllers" for the basic 4-byte Atari Pong and "Tele-Pong" varitions. Ping Pong or Tennis games which used Paddle controllers. 360 turning round nobs.

Back in the early 1980's you could tell a really old or Causal gamer by when the referred to all controllers as "Paddles" The NES/SNES/Genesis etc all came with 2 "Paddles" according to written newspaper advertisments written by older gamers/casual gamers who were selling their videogame consoles. The era before internets craigslist, Amazon, Ebay, Kijjji etc.

So for Nintendo they can trace their "Heritage" from 1977-1983 onwards "Color TV" game Console/devices & "Game & watch" handhelds/portable tabletops. Of the second Generation. (1983)1985-1989(1995) NES "Regular Nintendo" and the original Gameboy 1989-1998 handheld system, of the 3rd Generation. (1990)1991 - 1997(1999) SNES Super Nintendo. 1996-2001 The Nintendo 64 & GameBoy Color 1998-2001. Of the 5th Generation. 2001-2006(2007) The Nintendo Gamecube and Gameboy Advance/Gameboy Advance SP 2001-2006 Of the 6th Generation. The 7th Generation had the Nintendo Wii 2006-2012 & the Nintendo DS (2004-2012/2013).

Finally the 8th Generation of Videogame machines Nintendo's enteries are the Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL 2011-? and the Nintendo Wii U 2012-?

So both the timeline of a videogame company release of videogame Consoles and Handheld Videogame Systems. As well as the processing power/capabilities/features/Control schemes/Graphics are both factors in describing a Generation of Videogame machines. Nintendo has 2nd all the way to 8th generation of history.