It depends, it's hard to imagine we could have had GTA (at least San Andrea) on console without DVD, and I really think the level of possibility, story, the variety of mission, side mission, fun of GTA was innovative. Not to talk about CD and FF7. Even for the emotion engine on PS2, compared to a better XBox1, I think it's one of the thing that made possible the low cost of the PS2, improved market shares, then increased the game budget that lead to fantastic games.

On the contrary, Nintendo is credited for the Wiimote, because it was a selling factor, it had huge impact on the gameplay, and a lot of people liked it. But especially at the very beginning of the Wii, when I saw tennis from Wii Sport, what I was seeing was not innovation, but the simplistic Konami's ping pong on 8 bits sold again by the power of advertising on casuals : simplistic graphics, simplistic gameplay. Not to blame the Wii, the Wiimote, or Nintendo, just to say how far you are from directly improving gameplay is irrevelant.

whoah now the wii remote was used well in plenty of games. forum dwellers might not have enjoyed motion controls but they were definately gameplay improving in some circumstances. 

Not gonna argue with all of them but 4 shoulder buttons and 2 control sticks arent innovative.

For example, 2 control sticks didnt innovate FPS games, merely allowed better control.

Well usually anything Sony related seems to "get your goat" on here .. but that's none of my business *sips tea*

At the end of the day, every company has built upon other peoples concepts

I quote myself : "especially at the very beginning of the Wii". It got a lot of better game that are far from a konami's ping pong, and some game were fun thanks to the wiimote.

As an innovation in gaming, did it become a standard, did it become the base for next controllers, did it prove it was better or necessary for any major genre, the answer is probably no. The wiimote is dead. On the contrary, optical drives became a standard, and were usefull and necessary for better games. So, what I want to say is that an optical drive can have as much impact as (or more than) a new controller, and then be an innovation in gaming.

Exactly, which is why DVDs and Blurays are a refinment of CDs. It was thanks to the introduction of this entirely new medium that game sizes could literally explode onto the scene, where the production of the medium itself was a fraction of the cost compared to cartridges, yet you could create massive games compared to before.

The Wiimote made motion controlling a mass market product, and made some games hugely immersive (just seeing how older people got engaged in Wii sports is quite amazing). It was not an innovation, but a refinment from previous attempts, for example Sega with samba De Amigo and other.

Ofcourse there are also innovations in gaming, and it is always hard to know ehere to draw the line. In this thread though, some people seem to think Sony created society as we know it :).

This is the most insightful paragraph in the entire thread. You all could learn a lot from this man. 

Now we're getting into the realm of 'everything is a copy of something else'

Its fun thread, but I still wait for some actual GAME to be shown as an example of Sony innovations in GAMING... Sadly, sony fans don't even mention games here... ((

well, most things are a copy, the question is where we draw the line and call it an innovation. Would you say that 32MB cartridges were an innovation or a development upon previous cartridge sizes? Compare that to an entirely new medium, from cartridge to CD to streaming. Those are different medium that affected the gaming landscape radically. I would say that adding a second analogue stick was highly innovative since it radically changed the way we play games. Adding extra shoulder button is only a refinment, kind of like how MS added rumble in triggers for X1.