development pipelines, game certification procedures, maybe patches, provided a platform for indie games, made hard drives mandatory (though not initially iirc). i'm sure there's more

it can't be overstated how important the NES was to video games, as it basically resurrected them from the atari fiascos. likewise, ps1/2 did a lot for pushing the envelope on what games could be. most of the other consoles were iterations and not particularly revolutionary. 360 did so much more than every other console. continuing with reg's rap metaphor, all the previous consoles are the sugar hill gangs and kurtis blows. we wouldn't be where we are now without them. but the 360 is somewhere in kanye/rakim territory in how much it's impacted the rest of the world of video games

i don't know how confident i am in this assertion. it may be NES just for the fact that it saved video games. or ps2 because of the breadth of titles available, the dual shock, and how many units it sold