Version 2.0, 16 September 2026. Keep the original 15 Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft home/TV-dockable platforms and 12 completed successor intervals. No post-hoc expansion to a new manufacturer with uncertain regional release definitions. Add first documented release dates to the same rows and compare them with US dates. Earliest launches move five rows earlier: PlayStation, PS2, PS3, Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Nintendo's original GameCube colour must be distinguished from the later black/orange models. PlayStation 4 launched first in North America; do not automatically treat Japan as the first market. Switch and Switch 2 simultaneous dates remain unchanged.
Most dates come from manufacturer histories and release announcements. Nintendo 64's Japanese date is additionally supported by a dated Famitsu historical report. The Wii US launch remains supported by the original retailer announcement. Provenance fields identify the source type; no claim that every source is first-party. Preserve the original US source table and new earliest-release sources separately.
Interval days = successor launch minus predecessor launch. Years = days/365.2425. Compute within each manufacturer, then report medians of completed intervals. Region sensitivity changes both endpoints; it is not simply the delay of the successor. Current platforms contribute no completed interval. These are product-successor gaps, not an estimate of sales lifespan, game support, technological generations or a predicted release schedule.
Exclude handheld-only devices, Slim/Pro/storage variants and reissues; Switch hybrids are included because they dock to a television. Xbox Series X and S count as one platform launched on one day. The defined brand/platform selection is purposive and small; no population confidence interval or industry-wide five-year law is claimed. The contribution is the aligned regional chronology and sensitivity calculation. Individual launch dates should normally cite the original announcements.
Historical-cycle comparison, version 3.0: an exploratory period analysis uses the five transitions completed by 31 December 2006, when Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii had entered the market. Mean and median of US intervals both round to 5.1 years; earliest-market dates yield 5.3 and 5.2. Later and full-period results remain in the graph and tables. These platform intervals illustrate replacement cadence, while the conventional generation description is also sourced to contemporary industry analysis. No significance test, p-value or claim of a prespecified cutoff. Period exploration results are retained in the research package.