The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists
of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation
4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family
in 2017.
The generation offered few signature hardware innovations. Sony and Microsoft
continued to produce new systems with similar designs and capabilities as
their predecessors, but with improved performance (processing speed, higher-
resolution graphics, and increased storage capacity) that further moved
consoles into confluence with personal computers, and furthering support for
digital distribution and games as a service.