History MediaNotes / TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames

Nintendo, the final member of the "Big Three", was thrown off the generational cadence that has been in place since the early 2000s when they threw in the towel on the Platform/WiiU halfway through the last round in favor of launching the Platform/NintendoSwitch, making for an interesting scenario where it broke this organizational framework.[[note]]Website/{{Wikipedia}} has taken to calling it an eighth generation console like the Wii U, but noting that it remains a competitor to the [=PS5=] and Xbox Series systems.[[/note]] By the time the [=PS5=] and new Xbox consoles launched, the Switch had been on the market for over three years and had proven its "hybrid" concept -- wherein the system can act as a dedicated handheld, home console, or both, depending on a consumer's need -- to be a successful one. That doesn't seem to be changing any time soon either, as the system continues to sell gangbusters. Nintendo's bold claim around its launch that the console could possibly exceed the sales of the Platform/{{Wii}} had long stopped feeling outlandish, and the system would go on to become the third best-selling gaming console of all-time. A handheld-only variant known as the "Lite" was released in September 2019. An updated "Pro" model was rumored in 2021 by various tech news outlets to have 4K capability and increased hardware power through the integration of NVIDIA's DLSS technology; whether a "Pro" was ever actually planned remains unclear, though Nintendo would still release a revision that same year called the "OLED model", which offered an improved and nicer build. As for the "Pro" model rumors, they morphed into a constant guessing game of when the system's proper successor would be revealed and launched -- aided by a 2022 Nvidia leak which gave soft-confirmation of some of the next console's technical specifications.

** ''Guilty Gear -STRIVE-''

* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2023''

* [[/index]]''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'':[[index]]
** ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon''
** ''VideoGame/LikeADragonGaidenTheManWhoErasedHisName''
** ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth''

Nintendo, the final member of the "Big Three", was thrown off the generational cadence that has been in place since the early 2000s when they threw in the towel on the Platform/WiiU halfway through the last round in favor of launching the Platform/NintendoSwitch, making for an interesting scenario where it broke this organizational framework.[[note]]TheOtherWiki has taken to calling it an eighth generation console like the Wii U, but noting that it remains a competitor to the [=PS5=] and Xbox Series systems.[[/note]] By the time the [=PS5=] and new Xbox consoles launched, the Switch had been on the market for over three years and had proven its "hybrid" concept -- wherein the system can be treated as a home console, a dedicated handheld, or both depending on a consumer's need -- to be a successful one. That doesn't seem to be changing any time soon either, as the system continues to sell gangbusters. Nintendo's bold claim around its launch that the console could possibly exceed the sales of the Platform/{{Wii}} had long stopped feeling outlandish, and the system would go on to become the third best-selling gaming console of all-time. A handheld-only variant known as the "Lite" was released in September 2019. An updated "Pro" model was rumored in 2021 by various tech news outlets to have 4K capability and increased hardware power through the integration of NVIDIA's DLSS technology; whether a "Pro" was ever actually planned remains unclear, though Nintendo would still release a revision that same year called the "OLED model", which offered an improved and nicer build. As for the "Pro" model rumors, they morphed into a constant guessing game of when the system's proper successor would be revealed and launched -- aided by a 2022 Nvidia leak which gave soft-confirmation of some of the next console's technical specifications.

Nintendo, the final member of the "Big Three", was thrown off the generational cadence that has been in place since the early 2000s when they threw in the towel on the Platform/WiiU halfway through the last round in favor of launching the Platform/NintendoSwitch, making for an interesting scenario where it pretty much broke this organizational framework.[[note]]TheOtherWiki has taken to calling it an eighth generation console like the Wii U, but noting that it remains a competitor to the [=PS5=] and Xbox Series systems.[[/note]] By the time the [=PS5=] and new Xbox consoles launched, the Switch had been on the market for over three years and had proven its "hybrid" concept -- wherein the system can be treated as a home console, a dedicated handheld, or both depending on a consumer's need -- to be a successful one. That doesn't seem to be changing any time soon either, as the system continues to sell gangbusters. Nintendo's bold claim around its launch that the console could possibly exceed the sales of the Platform/{{Wii}} had long stopped feeling outlandish, and the system would go on to become the third best-selling gaming console of all-time. A handheld-only variant known as the "Lite" was released in September 2019. An updated "Pro" model was rumored in 2021 by various tech news outlets to have 4K capability and increased hardware power through the integration of NVIDIA's DLSS technology; whether a "Pro" was ever actually planned remains unclear, though Nintendo would still release a revision that same year called the "OLED model", which offered an improved and nicer build. As for the "Pro" model rumors, they morphed into a constant guessing game of when the system's proper successor would be revealed and launched -- aided by a 2022 Nvidia leak which gave soft-confirmation of some of the next console's technical specifications -- with current rumors suggesting a March 2025 release.

Nintendo, the final member of the "Big Three", was thrown off the standard generational cadence when they threw in the towel on the Platform/WiiU halfway through the last round in favor of launching the Platform/NintendoSwitch. By the time the [=PS5=] and new Xbox consoles launched, the Switch had been on the market for over three years and had proven its "hybrid" concept -- wherein the system can be treated as a home console, a dedicated handheld, or both depending on a consumer's need -- to be a successful one. That doesn't seem to be changing any time soon either, as the system continues to sell gangbusters. Nintendo's bold claim around its launch that the console could possibly exceed the sales of the Platform/{{Wii}} had long stopped feeling outlandish, especially after the Switch benefitted from a huge spike in sales thanks to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic a lot of people staying home throughout 2020]] that helped it surpass that goal by the end of 2021 and helped it go on to become the third best-selling gaming console of all-time. A handheld-only variant known as the "Lite" was released in September 2019. An updated "Pro" model was rumored in 2021 by various tech news outlets to have 4K capability and increased hardware power through the integration of NVIDIA's DLSS technology; whether this was false or a change of plans due to computer chip shortages, Nintendo instead released a more premium SKU of the existing Switch called the "OLED model". Rather than be a hardware upgrade similar to the previous generation's [=PS4 Pro=] or [=New Nintendo 3DS=], the "OLED model" is more in line with Nintendo's usual handheld revisions, simply offering an improved and nicer build to appeal to new consumers as opposed to encouraging current ones to upgrade. As for the "Pro" model rumors, they have shifted to rumors of a successor to the Switch releasing in 2024 sporting the same rumored technology.

* [[/index]]''VideoGame/MetalGear:[[index]]

The most significant impact of all however was the act of simply acquiring any of the new hardware. To accommodate social distancing, retailers opted to not carry the new consoles on store shelves, offering them only for order online to be either shipped or picked up. Without the option of camping out before a store opens, any attempt to purchase a [=PS5=] or new Xbox was at the mercy of functioning servers and a hope that they wouldn't sell out immediately before scalpers running automated shopping bots get to them first. Scalping has always been an issue with new consoles but the lack of brick and mortar availability, the bots, and a sophisticated network of scalpers selling access to those bots created what is effectively a pyramid scheme keeping consoles out of the hands of normal folks. It wasn't just the newcomers either, with the now 4 year old Switch disappearing from shelves for stretches at a time, and PC hardware, particularly graphics cards, becoming exceptionally rare as they were being swiped up for crypto mining. Retail prices of the [=NVidia=] 3000 and [=AMD=] 6000 cards which were already increased from their previous generation, got further inflated by [=OEMs=] and retailers, and then getting scalped. If you weren't lucky enough to get in on the small allotment of reference design cards sold directly from the chipmakers, you could expect to be paying well over $1000 for even a mid-range card. All of that started '''before''' the full effect of the global supply chain meltdown even hit and disproportionally affected [=AMD=] as the chips for both Sony and Microsoft's consoles plus their own [=CPUs=] and [=GPUs=] sharing the same production capacity. As of early 2022, the only positive development is more consistent availability of the Xbox Series S, due to its significantly smaller APU allowing more to be produced at one time compared to the X and [=PS5=]. This was an unexpected boon for Microsoft, with their bet on offering a low-end [=SKU=] paying off and allowing them to discontinue the Platform/XboxOne family (by ceasing development of new first-party games for the system) and free up even more production capacity, while Sony was forced to continue production of the [=PS4=] until at least 2023, which along with cross-generation titles and [=PC=] ports has diminished the original marketing narrative of the [=PS5=] as the only way to experience new games, although that clearly hasn't stopped people from buying it.