Gameboy NES or X360 obviously

NES

for nailing the platform-developper business model still in use today

for creating a gaming environment (press / communities / 

for actually having integrated network connectivity

Gameboy for

1st successful portable gaming

Connecting consoles for multiplayer

xbox 360 for

- setting the standard of online multiplayer on consoles
- creating an indie friendly environment
- 1st real developer oriented policy

???

Not only Sega Saturn was ahead but also the Jaguar

Saturn was released earlier

I think we can't talk about a game changer in any sort of definitive way. Most consoles had a contribution to the gaming medium and you can't really say "Online was more important that analog sticks" or "CDs were more important than jump starting the industry".

We've had the original Ataris, that breathed life into this hobby of ours, the NES that brought it back to life, the PS1 that brought it into the limelight, together with the N64 that brought us 3D games, the XBox that brought us the online services and the Wii that brought the casuals into our ranks like never before.
But in-between we've had rumble, graphic evolutions, realism evolution, analog sticks, programming techniques, story telling techniques, each console adding something new to the table in some way or another, be it memorable or not.

Sega started the trend to aim more towards teenagers/adults with the Genesis. They had to because the NES had the kids market on lock down. People should read "The Console Wars" book (which ironically is being turned into a movie by Sony). Saying the Playstation 1 did it all is pretty much an outright lie.

I've heard that developers really struggled to get 3D games to render on the Saturn.

I've heard that developers really struggled to get Native 720p games & 3D ready games on the PS3 & 360.

Fairchild Channel F

...Great?

@KylieDog

Oh no....I got the point you were attempting to make. I was just making one of my own. The use of insipid terms like "manchildren" tends to derail an awful lot of conversations.

And quite frankly, the PS1 didn't sell as much as it did because of some magical public perception shift. Fuck, Tetris did more to expand the audience for video gaming than the PS1 did. The reason the PS1 sold so much, for one, is because it played audio CDs. And for another, because it just so happened to house a couple of games that were super-popular that generation, games that got a lot of buzz in mainstream media, such as Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, and FFVII. It's not as if any of those games were actually more "mature" or sophisticated than games that had come out, say, a decade earlier on PC. There were all kinds of dark, "gritty", so-called "mature-themed" games, both on home consoles and PC, long before PS1 came along. PS1 just happened to be a craze that built up. Passing fads like the Tony Hawk games certainly didn't hurt, either.

It was a great system, I'm not saying it wasn't. I just don't think it can be credited for quite the massive-scale paradigm shift you're suggesting.