If you separate the online aspects from a console then it's just basically just a dumb box that launches the disc you put into it. So when you say online gaming you're really talking about the modern game console experience and most of the other things you can do on a console besides launch discs.
Sony really hasn't been that forward thinking. They weren't putting their first party titles on PC at all before Microsoft did it.
Microsoft has had day 1 PC releases for all their first party titles for years now. Sony is not doing this so far. They last said at least 1 year exclusivity and then a PC release and so far that's been the case(Horizon FW is launching more than 2 years later on PC.) MSFT is doing it out of necessity, not because it's the
better thing to do.
They didn't have PlayStation Network before Xbox Live existed.
Okay
Their consoles didn't even have a standard way to connect online out of the box before Microsoft did it
Again, this was what I said before in that Xbox pioneered online gaming for consoles.
. Launching apps on a console, a serious console OS,
OK. I don't remember much on the OG Xbox besides loading up a game though.
standard first party wireless controllers,
Idk about that, the
boomerang and dualshock 3 were unveiled as wireless controllers before the 360 released.
The ability to purchase DLC and expansions, games installable on a hard drive, the console having a standardized hard drive out of the box, USB controllers that can also be plugged up to a PC.
Dreamcast came with the DLC installs first. MSFT bettered it.
There is a long list of things that Sony as the market leader should have been able to hang their hat on and say they did first but didn't and mostly did as a response to someone else (namely Microsoft) doing it first.
Now let's do a list of the things Sony pioneered:
Dual analog sticks in the first dualshock.
You can say N64 inspired it and they made it a hot song but then the same thing can be said for the online and DLC capabilities of the Dreamcast to Xbox.
- CD based gaming which allowed for much bigger games/audio compared to cartridges. Before that it was an add-on(like how the network adapter was an "add on" for the PS2.
- PS2 with the built in DVD player
- PS3 with the bluray player
- Eyetoy for motion gaming
- Haptic feedback/adaptive triggers in the dualsense
- Console Virtual reality
- Touchpad on the Dual shock 4
- Free games with online subs(PS Plus launched in 2010, XBL Games with Gold later
- Streaming games online through other devices(Remote play, PS Now)
All the platforms have pioneered something. MSFT wasn't the end all be all of pioneering things/forward thinking that currently are the modern gaming experience.