Is This The Smallest Console Generation Leap Ever?

Sixth To Seventh (1999-2005)

Now we reach the consoles that are breathing their last breaths, soon to be replaced and resigned to the history books. The seventh generation began in 2005 with the Xbox 360 and a year later the PS3 came along. In a move that they appear to be sticking with, Nintendo decided to abandon the race for achieving the most powerful console and instead went their own way to explore motion controls in the form of the Wii. This jump saw significant steps forward. Obviously there was the advancement in the graphics, perhaps the most significant was High Definition (HD) gaming. As HDTV's were starting to catch on, the console market was helping the sales. All of the consoles now featured built-in storage devices rather than memory cards and allowed for game installations. Perhaps the single most important step that was taken with this generation was all three companies fully embracing the internet. Each console had it's own online service allowing gamers to join an online community, meaning there was now always someone to play with. This also meant that the consoles could be continually updated throughout the generation, meaning that the Xbox 360 you bought at launch was a long way away from the one you're about the throw away today. The internet also meant that consoles were becoming a lot more than game machines, and more than DVD players: various online features including iPlayer, Netflix and Youtube meant that playing games on your consoles was just the tip of the entertainment-iceberg. While the conventional controllers stayed pretty much the same, the Wii introduced a whole new way of interacting with a game. Nintendo took a gamble, and it paid off. Everyone wanted to stand in front of their TV's waggling around the Wiimote, which meant that the barrier of the now ever-complex controllers was no longer an issue, and anyone could swing their arm to bowl or play tennis. The sales of the Wii were so good that Sony and Microsoft attempted to get in on the motion control success with the Kinect and Move, but were unable to capture the Wii's market.