Well here's what usually happens with innovation: one person/company/entity comes up with some radical a new with a lukewarm implementation. Later, some other entity uses that concept with a much better implementation (usually adapting it to a concept they already have; in our case, perhaps using it in a game sequel), and that implementation is much more successful.
Very rarely, the entity who innovates gets the prize. You can see examples of this even recently in the industry; the Dreamcast innovated on a few fronts, most notably the integrated modem, and while online play is huge now it wasn't the innovator that was rewarded. Nintendo likes to innovate -- the N64 controller, for example, was very innovative and there's no doubt that it's continuing to influence controller design today. The concept of portable gaming in general was practically invented ny Nintendo (Game & Watch) and the idea of portable gaming that's similar to console gaming (Gameboy) was quite an innovation. Then again, you have the Virtual Boy, Power Glove, and so on. Innovation is good, but not always for the innovator.