When Does Next Gen Become Current Gen?

Well, some would say it already started when the 3DS launched.

I don't know. I guess I'll consider calling "next gen" "current gen" once all of them are finally out on the 22nd.

The poll makes no sense. Next-gen becomes next-gen in my opinion when they break free from cross-platform ports.

Publishers will keep calling PS4/XONE "next-gen" until they stop supporting the old consoles. Really annoying, "next gen" is here but pubs probably don't want their customers to feel bad if they say its coming out for "old" consoles. I guess its easier to distinguish that way but still annoying.

So since FIFA was released for PS2 this year, does that make the PS4 next-next-gen?

I always thought that next-next-gen would be like the Matrix. Now I'm sad.

Shall we agree next-gen begins January 1st 2014?

When most of the cross platforms dont include PS3 or 360.

I would say after E3/the fall of the year after consoles launched. That will be the time when a big new game on PS3/360 starts being a very rare thing.

For me a next gen system is one that is not out or is still in its's "Launch Window." Right now the Wii U, 3DS, and Vita are current gen and the PS4 and XONE will be in a couple months or so.

Technically it starts with PS4.

But we'll all keep referring to it as next gen until PS3 and 360 support is basically nonexistent

NOW

BOMBCAST NOW

When it feels right. You have to get to the point where you feel like the last generation is in the past and your feet are firmly planted in the next one. For myself I'll probably have to own a new console and have enough to play on it to consider it my primary gaming machine (outside of PC). At that point the old machines may still be relevant, but in more of a "looking back" sort of way. Next spring seems like a good time to call the next generation the current one. Big next gen games like Titanfall and Infamous will be out as well as the last few anticipated current gen games like South Park and Dark Souls II.

When the groundhog sees its shadow. Everyone knows this.

February 26, 2011

Though this is entirely subjective, I feel that next-gen becomes current-gen two years after a second major console has launched, the idea being that you've got (minimum) two active competitors with similar technology fighting for the same consumer base and growing alongside one another.

Early adopters aside, many consumers will wait a year after launch for software libraries to take shape and for incentives such as holiday-specific bundles. In the second year of release, platforms will mature, prices may drop, and developers start to produce games that realize more of the potential that each console's hardware allows. By the end of that second year, media attention is mostly shifted to the newer consoles while older consoles start to quietly fade to the back of retailers' marketing priorities.

Well, if it's anything like this past generation, people will still be calling them next gen in like 5 years. I think it had to do with the Wii being significantly underpowered compared to the other two systems, but hearing people call PS3 and 360 next gen in like 2011 was both common and stupid.

This is why the whole "generation" thing is so senseless. There's no real standard (there really cant be) and console releases define generations at different rates.

There is no real right answer for this. The poll kind of proves that everyone defines it differently basically meaning no one actually knows.

Yeah, I'm really enjoying seeing how varied this is turning out to be. Everyone is kind of right in their own way too.

Friday for most (and me) but I guess technically it was the Wii U. But you could also argue the 3DS brought in the next gen so in 2011.

If we really go by the console released, the next generation started with the Wii U but nobody cares about it so now Nintendo is stuck in some sort of current/next gen limbo.

I'm sure some marketing assholes will abuse the term next-gen for at least another 4 years like they did last time around. Fact is one they're out they're out, it's current.

Friday

I'm going to say when the userbase shifts.

A few years ago on PC.

When the number of relevant games on new hardware consistently exceeds that of older hardware.

I consider consoles current gen when I get one. But in a non-selfish, thinking of other people sort of way...

I dunno, a year after the release of the 2nd next gen console sounds fine.

NEVER!

When it feels right, man. When it feels right.

When Brad can name ten games better than Brothers.

When games actually look next-gen.

Technically it started with the Wii U. Generations refer to shared time periods that the consoles were released, not the perceived power of the systems.

I'd say E3 next year when the PS3 and Xbox 360 slowly start to get pushed out of the press conferences.

As soon as they come out. It's a classification of consoles that share a time period together. So therefore as soon as they are released they become current. The next consoles to come out in 10 years will be the next gen at that point. Makes no sense to call something that exists the next generation, because we're in it already.

the moment there's a Burnout Paradise type game

Once old consoles are forgotten about

Current gen began like a year ago when the Wii-U came out and PC versions became the standard for most new releases. The XBone and PS4 are just the last two to the party.

1/1/2014 12:57 PM

My outdated machines are even more outdated now! Rejoice!

For this current-gen, I remember it took about a year or so before most people started referring to stuff as current-gen.

When publications stop using the term next gen to get more clicks for articles because they can no longer justify the using the term. In other words, when it feels so wrong it becomes unavoidable.

I don't know. I remember the 360 and Ps4 being called "Next Gen" for a few years after they came out.

Welcome to a new world :) Or perhaps when the Wii U was released?

'Next Gen' starts Nov 15th with release of PS4. But I guess it only really stops being called 'next gen' once 360/PS3 versions of (most) multiplat games stop being made.

To be honest I don't think Current Gen and Next gen has as much meaning as it once did. I even think when you start to say OUYA and PS4 exist within the same generation you are talking factually but without meaning. What does 8th generation hardware even mean when 3DS, 2DS, Ouya, PS4, and Steam Machine are lumped together. It like saying Miley Cyrus pop songs, peanut soup I ate last May, and Russian meteorites I saw on YouTube exist together...yes they do...but in no meaningful way worth discussing together.

PS4, Xbox One and Wii U are worth discussing together in the sense that exist as home consoles with similar games that will all have very different and very lopsided influences in gaming (as an industry) over the next three or four years.