The Most Industry-Changing Consoles/Handhelds?

[BurningDoom]

Nice list, but personally, I wouldn't include the Dreamcast in the list. I love the console, it sold a lot of units, but I don't think it had any Industry-changing effect (except maybe if you consider it as the console that took Sega out of the console race). It's not the first gaming machine with online capabilities, and I don't think the dreamcast's online capabilities pushed any other console manufacturers to copy or improve on theirs (if we're going that route, I'd probably replace the Dreamcast with the Xbox360).

There were internet like things like Sega's short-lived Saturn service, or the Sega Channel on the Genesis beforehand, but there never was a console that fully embraced online to the point Dreamcast did. Dreamcast had a modem built into the console and each system came with a SegaNET disc. They had the support of Microsoft. And SegaNET was a legitimate gaming network.

And XBox 360 is the system that did it? Even if you don't consider Dreamcast the front-runner (which I disagree with if you do), the original XBox had XBox Live before 360 was even a concept.

[BurningDoom]

The DS wasn't the first game system to introduce a touch screen. That honor would go to the Game.com.

Seriously.

Didn't realize this. Never played a Game.com. Guess you'd be right then.

[neilencio]

Not trying to debate, everything I said, like the list, was just personal opinion (see the underlined word in my first post) and I don't mind being corrected (re the xbox thing, I admit that I was wrong).

I just think being the first to do something does not automatically make a game console/handheld industry changing (see Yoshi's example - Game.com was the first to use a touch screen, but between said console and the DS, which one actually affected the industry?)

[o.pwuaioc]

Remove Dreamcast, DS, Microvision.

Add Xbox (even if for the worse, as some claim), PS2, and Genesis.

[fastbilly1]

Motion controls thru various peripherals like the Fishing controller and the Samba Maracas.

The Maracas are audio based.

[noiseredux]

I just think being the first to do something does not automatically make a game console/handheld industry changing

I agree with this. The first to do something is just the first to do it. But industry-changing means that people actually noticed whatever what was being done.

[BurningDoom]

Remove Dreamcast, DS, Microvision.

Add Xbox (even if for the worse, as some claim), PS2, and Genesis.

I can see XBox for the hard-drive and XBox Live (even though I still say SegaNET should get the credit there, not XBox Live). And I can see Genesis for breaking through the stranglehold Nintendo had on the market.

But how is PS2 industry-changing?

[BurningDoom]

I just think being the first to do something does not automatically make a game console/handheld industry changing

I agree with this. The first to do something is just the first to do it. But industry-changing means that people actually noticed whatever what was being done.

I agree with this. But I disagree if he's saying DS & Dreamcast didn't get any notice from gamers.

[neilencio]

I agree with this. But I disagree if he's saying DS & Dreamcast didn't get any notice from gamers.

We're straying too far from my original thoughts. I didn't say the above (in fact, my comment was that the DS had more effect on the industry than Game.com). I didn't say that the Dreamcast didn't get any notice from gamers either. Just that it had no lasting effect on the industry (not even the loss of Sega the hardware manufacturer, since they're already suffering from poor cred by the time the Dreamcast appeared)

RE: PS2's effect on the industry - for one thing, the PS2 strengthened Sony's foothold in the industry. It's the reverse of what happened with SEGA. Sony wouldn't have so much clout now if the PS1 and PS2 were failures and they lost clout with people. Changing the industry is not always about actual, tangible changes through innovative peripherals or newfangled gameplay inventions, sometimes it happens in the boardrooms and in sales charts.

[o.pwuaioc]

Remove Dreamcast, DS, Microvision.

Add Xbox (even if for the worse, as some claim), PS2, and Genesis.

I can see XBox for the hard-drive and XBox Live (even though I still say SegaNET should get the credit there, not XBox Live). And I can see Genesis for breaking through the stranglehold Nintendo had on the market.

But how is PS2 industry-changing?

PS2 killed the Dreamcast, and brought the industry to its current place. Technologically? Nothing new, just a PS1+. But the impact on its games pretty much set the path for what would come, and the Xbox followed in its lead.

That point is debatable, and merely from my recollection of the time. Also, I'm not sure what else really deserves to be on that list if not PS2, the longest lasting modern console and oft-proclaimed best console ever with the best library. I equate it directly with modern gaming, although its release date being so close to the Xbox's coupled with the fact that the original shift happened on the PC might mean it really doesn't belong on the list at all.

Maybe -PS2 and +PC?