It's just a function of who they are as a company.  They only do everything could very well be their corporate slogan.

  Find a segment of consumer electronics that Sony doesn't have at least 5 products in, I challenge you.  Mobile phones, desktops, laptops, portable media players, boom boxes, recievers, tvs, game consoles, video cameras, phones, digital cameras, film and photo processing software, game production, MMORPGs, movie production, movie format production, television production etc.  They really just do pretty much everything so of course they're the first to move into any segment that looks viable. 

She's playing Natal :-O

Looks like MS has snuck in and pinched round one from both of them.
Typical MS

btw this article was written in 2006

2006

2006

2006

- Just a reminder

Remember how Nintendo pioneered the use of Disc based media in consoles? Oh wait, they stayed with cartridges 5 years past their prime. Pretty sure Sony was the first to use DVD in the PS2, so is the Wii a ripoff?  Reportedly Sony shopped the PS1 to Nintendo and Nintendo told Sony they were crazy and should go away.  That worked out well for big N in the first and second generation of modern games huh?

Remember how Nintendo had an online gaming network that let you play with dozens of other gamers with unique usernames and voice chat? Oh, they still don't have that?

If by gameplay innovations they mean the innovation of remaking the same game from the 80s or early 90s 8 times and leaving 90% of it the same (see Mario kart, Smash bros, New Super Mario Bros etc) then yes, they do indeed own that innovation. I'll take the innovations of games with the scale of movies, interactive drama, customizable level creators and photo realistic graphics thank you very much.

saying that wall of 90% shovelware and retreads that is the Wii section of Best Buy is the innovative future of gaming is like me saying that movies like Twilight are the future of innovative cinema in the US. If thats true heaven help us.

The arrogance of Nintendo with their current slate of decided mediocrity when it comes to games is just maddening.

I'm going to of course catch flack for saying anything bad about Nintendo, but if the PR guy quoted can lead off with calling Sony an inferior copy machine it kind of sets the tone doesn't it?

  This Gen Little Big Planet, Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain have been as innovative as anything I've seen come from Nintendo in over a decade.

4 years passing doesn't make it any less true haha