"Next generation" A term that grew popular shortly after year 2000. With new technology being adopted and developed in the gaming/3d graphics industry (high poly to low poly baking / normal maps, parallax and general shading technology).
With the sudden leap in technology being pushed further, previous and older methods still being in use were gradually referred to as 'last gen' while everyone strived to make 'next gen-' into 'current gen-' technology.
Once things subsided, the term next gen
eventually stuck to this recently developed technology, even though it was now the norm. The meaning has since become a bit unclear, and is used very liberally, even as a marketing term.
In
the general publics eye, it is also often used as meaning 'better looking graphics', regardless of what technology is being employed, failing to realize the large
quantity of aspects being involved, just as with the making of a movie.
Source: worked as an
environment game-artist
