Yeah, why to freak out about this?

Get over with it, it's next generation because the new battle system (it could also FFXI, but no) and because it will dictate the style for the next games.

Then, if the game style is a success, it will be used in the next ones (even if it is the FFX team, sheesh), if not, it will go back to the known formula.

Thats the real reason of the "next gen", the same happened with FFVII, it was just a experiment to know if 3D graphics worked with the fans, now is time to see if this style of battle system will work with fans.