Well, Nintendo started in the late 70's and they have a console out in 2018 which is either winning every NPD or damn near winning it. Let's see where Sony is at in 2035 before we put them above Nintendo.

Nintendo and Sega are manufacturers rather than brands, or at least they are if you are using Xbox and PlayStation instead of Microsoft and Sony.

So out of the 2 brands you've listed I'll go with PlayStation, in spite of the fact I've always had an Xbox instead of a PS.

Honestly, I'd go with both, they are equal to me in terms of fun, but I'll go with Sony on this one, even though I started with Nintendo, I only knew Mario(I think), most of them are 3rd parties when I started to learn about brand games, on Sony, I know lots.

Actually Ralph Baer's  Magnavox Odyssey 1972 started it.

You can argue all you want about what is now the best, but looking historically its Nintendo. No other game company has such a long history of success and public acceptance.

I suppose it depends where you live, but growing up in the United States in the early 90s, it was pretty normal to hear consoles referred to as "Nintendo" and handhelds referred to as "Game Boy." Nintendo has just been around for long enough that it just seemed normal to give them the Band-Aid/iPod/Kleenex treatment.

I imagine it's different in Europe, Japan, and RoW though...and among people who grew up with the PS2.

XBox

When the Japanese wanted to hype their upcoming Summer Olympic games in the closing presentation from Rio, what video game icon did they choose? (I don't think it was Drake from Uncharted... but who knows, maybe he was there, too, dancing somewhere in the background.)

Nintendo is video games. It is Donkey Kong and Mario and Zelda. (What other character shares that kind of rarified, iconic air? Sonic and Pac-Man, certainly -- you could argue for MasterChief and Ryu, perhaps -- and that's just about the list.) They revived the industry and have spent the last almost 40 years reinventing it, again and again, in terms of both hardware and software. The PlayStation itself was initially conceived as a Nintendo accessory. And when the next innovation comes along to move the industry forward, it will almost certainly bear the name Nintendo.

Playstation obviously. The impact they've made on this industry is unparalleled.

It's gotta be Nintendo for me. I've grown up with them, and many of my fondest memories were playing their games. Also, seeing how their hardware has changed overtime, it's pretty fun seeing what they came up with. The motion controls in the Wii, the dual touch screen of the DS, and now the hybrid function of the Switch. It's brought along some interesting ways to play. That's something else I like about Nintendo, they're always experimenting with how people play games. They're definitely my favorite company in the industry.