In my opinion, the PlayStation2 and the Nintendo GameCube are qualified as some kind of "classic" consoles or "retro" consoles, because they established and died as "non-download-content" consoles. Their library of games is fully useable "as they known to be" without access to the internet and patch libraries.

I think the establishment of signed downloads, like patches, download content and download only games, wich required a subscription to an online service is the most important difference between two generations of gaming systems.

May be it's time for some new categories in generations. Like "before" and "after" online based services.