I don't think newer generations are ever going to match the mystique of the older ones no matter what happens.
This is likely true for more than video games. We live in a mass-produced, focus-group-driven hellscape where real creativity and boundary pushing is selected against by market forces. Look at movies. Hollywood is now a byword for unoriginal schlock for the lowest common denominator, but there was a time when Hollywood movies could be unconventional and daring and tell stories that didn't have Captain America in them. How many cars from the 1960's are dripping with mystique? How many from the 2000's?
The eighth generation of video games is like every other consumer product now. Creative passion has been replaced by a cynical drive for profit. The PS4 doesn't have a fascinating history behind its creation. It wasn't some odds-defying underdog story like the NES, and it has no interesting figures like Nolan Bushnell in it. The PS4 story is "Sony wanted more money so they made a new black rectangle." No one will ever look back on the WiiU and think "Wow, what a unique and iconic thing that was. What a heady time it evokes," any more than anyone will say that about Ke$ha.