The title question can be answered in many ways. Anything from gamers to bacterias originated from the hot springs deep in the ocean floor is one of many correct answers. But when it comes to giving the credit to a single person or company, I think that is too limited.

But mathemics is a subject humans have used to study form, quantity, change and so forth. All which are important to explain situations in nature, world, space and universe. And to create tools, build buildings, technology and more. If I would give credit to only one thing I would give it to mathematics. All science uses it. And after that comes, of course, imagination (which one could argue is most important and now that I think of it, it is) which includes fantasy and more (even mathematics). You could give the credit to human kind but in that case, the answer to these type of questions will always be "man".

But without mathematics you couldn't create the hardware or the coding for a game or the abacus.

I would say imagination, but that answer is too vague.

You should have taken the easy way out, this question does not deserve an intelligent answer.

Then I go with God too.

Wow this sucks. So I was going to post, "Mathematics won the war!" a quote from A Beautiful Mind but I wanted to find a youtube clip of it. Instead I found one of its great songs on Youtube, but guess what I remembered from the top comment?

That the composer, James Horner, has also passed this year.

WTF 2015.

Here's the music btw:

Konrad Zuse

It depends.
Wii and DS both revolutionized the gaming industry. Sure the Atari and stuff started it, but those two changed it dramatically.

Miyamoto created Mario and he is the most iconic and known video game characters ever made. 

So I would have to say Nintendo has been one of the most influential and has done a LOT to gaming because they aren't afraid to take risks, regardless if they succeed (Wii, DS) or fail (Wii U) .

shigeru miyamoto.

When his time comes the internet will morn like never before.

Nintendo if we're talking company. There's really no question there. Atari was the first company to foray into consoles, but Nintendo's path was leaning towards games regardless so I can't say Atari had any influence on Nintendo. I CAN say, however, that Nintendo had an influence on Sony, and Sony is the only one who comes close in terms of influence. Without Nintendo's awful handling of the SNES CD, we never get the PlayStation. Without Sony to take the helm of the mature gamer group from a freefalling Sega, gaming loses the teen crowd and beyond. Gaming then becomes even more linked as a toy item in the public eye, and never develops as we know it. Nintendo, therefore, has the most influence on our industry today.

Now, person? I'm going to say NOT Miyamoto. Instead Gunpei Yokoi. Without Yokoi Miyamoto never gets a shot and is never convinced to rework Radarscope. Then there's no Mario. Boom, industry dies with the crash for a good couple years and never fully recovers in America.

Nintendo and Miyamoto, why because mario first real 2d side scroller inspired the creation of sonic the hedgehog, Super Mario 64 inspires 3d platformers such as Crash Bandicot, Spyro, Jak and Daxter Rachet and Clank. Pokemon inspires Digimon, Metriod came before Halo was a thought, Starfox may have inspired the Sly Cooper series .

It's hard to determine, because everyone contribute for everything , and it's not like one person did all, and carry by them self , it took a lot of people to make console Industry to what we have now, and it took so much sacrifice (SEGA, NEO GEO Miyamoto, Gunpei Yoko , etc ) from a company to people live.