1. Sony didn't introduce CDs into gaming, Sega did.  Even discounting the Sega CD, the Saturn launched before the PSX did.

 2. Likewise with 3D gaming - Star Fox at least came out before the PSX did (and I'm sure there are plenty of others I don't know - see 32X, perhaps).  Also, early PSX 3D games were clunky and mishappen.  Until Mario 64 (and the N64) added the analog stick and camera-dependent directional controls to 3D 3rd person games, they weren't mass-marketable.  And, of course, Doom gets credit for 3D 1st person games.

Tomb Raider came out before Mario 64 and was a 3d 3rd person game that was mass marketable.

1. Check your facts.  It came out November '96, Mario 64 was out in both Japan and the US by then.

2. It was mass-marketable because of boobs.  This is just my opinion, of course, but I remember attempting to play that game and be astounded by how clunky the controls were.  Ahh ,the advantages of camera-sensitive controls and joystick. 

The NEC's Turbo CD launched long before the Sega CD.

@Legend11, Tomb Raider's digital controls weren't near as precise as the analog controls of Mario 64.

 Was that what that really famous import-only Castlevania was on (Rondo of Bloo, I think?)

 Anyways, thanks for the info.

There are 8 CD based consoles/add-ons prior to the Playstation.
There were hundreds of polygonal based video games before the Playstation.

Consider the sales -- those units got to hundreds of thousands. Nintendo's system reached almost one hundred million. That's a factor of a thousand more. Nintendo influenced Sony into the video game business as well -- top Sony brass did not want to get into gaming even after working with Nintendo on the super nes. Kutagari saw the value after working with Nintendo and convinced them to get into it. Without Nintendo there would still be gaming, of course, but it would be years behind where it is today. Nintendo first generated the common public interest in gaming. Nintendo did bring video games back into the forefront of the culture when everyone else thought they were a dieing fad.

The gaming industry is struggling right now due to high costs. Nintendo is, once again, coming to expand the video game market. They already did it significantly with the DS, and if they can do the same with the Wii it will help all areas of the gaming industry. It is extremely unlikely to have the level of impact that the NES did, of course, but it could make a big difference for an awful lot of gamers and an awful lot of companies.

1. Oops you're right, it came out a few months later.

2. Actually it was a great game with great level design.

 Perhaps.  I hated the controls, so I never got a chance to find out, which ties into my assertation that what hooked people was breasts, not the game itself.  Perhaps it was worth it once you got hooked, though.  *shrugs*

I was playing C64 when the NES came out, I don't think that NES saved video games, I remember having hundreds of games for the C64 and not that many for any other system. Yes they were able to give consoles a second chance but I don't think that they saved anything. And the person who said that making development cheaper nintendo is saving the market... I don't think so the only games that sales on nintendo systems are nintendo games so when you say that studios are losing money I most agree, big part of that money was developing games for a nintendo console.