In later era, absolutely, but I'd say N64 was more of inevitability of where graphics were going - Namco, Atari and SEGA were pushing 3D flat shaded and then later textured 3D arcades as the hottest thing, all featuring dedicated 3D hardware. At the time (late 80s, early 90s), PCs had 3D strictly via software CPU rendering, so they were actually a bit late to the party, hardware-wise at least...but as I said, by the time N64 released, several 3D cards were already on the market.

The NES established the modern console effectively.

The PS1 completely smashed down the social barriers and massively expanded the market,

The Atari 2600 did it, not the NES. It was already a 30M console before.

The NES got gaming back on its feet after the Atari 2600 failed to find a balance between shitty games and moving fowards.

But Atari was the one that did it all first. Console gaming already a strong gen before the NES. Even the gaming mascot, we already had Pac-Man, which was HUGE in arcades and came to the Atari 2600 before the NES as well.

Even as I consider pre-NES games to be mostly vastly inferior to post-NES ones, we already had even Nintendo games on arcaded before too, Mario and Donkey Kong were born there. Punch-out too.

The NES.

Not just for reviving the console market (and bringing it to Europe btw), but also due to it's controller. Just compare the controllers of Atari 2600 and others of their generation and the NES: D-pad, Start & Select buttons (or something along those lines), AB buttons (which now have become ABXY with a second row of buttons), those have all become standard nowadays, as have holding the controller essentially sideways and not like a remote.

What he says isn’t wrong. The NES established the closed system model and exclusive manufacturing/branding with proprietary components, which is the same model that has dominated the videogame industry ever since the NES.

It’s fair to argue that the NES may or may not have been an inevitable development. But outright saying the NES didn’t establish the modern console is factually wrong, because you don’t quite get there with the Atari 2600 or other major pre-NES gaming platforms.

You don't quite get there with the NES either, it was only with the PS1 that you get modern gaming as it still is now. The Atari did it first tho, when someone mentions the NES.

NES was important for its era, but almost nothing about it resembles modern gaming.

As I said in my first post, even a Dualshock 1 can still play virtually any modern game we have now.

3D has completely overtaken 2D.

The only major change post it was what Steam stablished for consolidated online stores and Microsoft brought over to consoles with Xbox Live Marketplace after the Dreamcast offered online play.

Many consoles were important to gaming.

The Atari 2600, the NES, the PS1, the Dreamcast, the Xbox 360.

Out of all of those, Atari did it first and the PS1 shaped current gaming the most, thus IMO being easily the most influential console ever.

In the handheld space, I'm also gonna throw in a shoutout to the PSP, as it's basic form factor is basically the layout of every modern handheld/hybrid machine:

Interesting perspective regarding the Xbox and Xbox 360

Indeed, those are the consoles that had a huge, lasting impact on gaming

We measure impact by looking at how current games are developed, and they certainly borrowed many Xbox ideas especially bringing online play into the console space. Of course, online gaming was already big on PC, but the Xbox’s inception was what really broke the wall between the console and PC gaming worlds.

We can clearly see the shift from the best-selling games of the PS2 era to what they became after the Xbox 360 generation. GTA was already a huge IP on the PS2, but it was only after the Xbox era that it fully turned into a live-service model. Genres traditionally big on PC also surged on consoles: shooters (Doom, Half-Life, Call of Duty, and of course Halo) and computer RPGs (The Elder Scrolls, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Fallout)


True, many people may not like how Microsoft changed the industry, but those are real game changers, without a doubt the more important consoles in the last 30 years

I think the PSP layout was simply an iteration of OG GBA layout

Man I really hated the DS layout for not following the OG GBA layout and going for "mobile phone flip" instead. The only good thing about it was the touch screen, but even that had severe limitations 

The Sega Game Gear had that format back in 1990, tho.

The Atary Lynx from 1989 was kinda like it too, but not exactly.