I don't know, I replayed the first one a month back and its still great!

No, MS is doing 1st party games as well.

2nd party isn't a real thing, its technical BS. If they don't own the studio, its 3rd party developed regardless who owns the IP.

MS had to buy Gears because they didn't own it. They just had a deal for four games apparently. Epic even made Unreal Tournament 3 for PS3 during that period.

Bungie left MS to make an online Halo and to go multiplat. They thought they had the next Call of Duty. Bungie is full of shit, Destiny would be more Halo if they owned it.

I do agree MS needs more notable 1st party content, but they also succeed in genres I feel Sony is weak. So meh, that's why I own both consoles.

Yeah, I cringe everytime I read "2nd party developer".

The 1st party is the console seller / platform owner

The 2nd party is the console buyer / gamer. So the only 2nd party software is homebrew you program yourself.

If I can point this out, "Banjo Three" already exists. It's called Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and, IMO (incoming typically Jaicee unorthodox opinion), it's the best of the three games by far precisely because, as the game itself comedically points out, it's something more clever than another collect-a-thon of pointless objects. I also just enjoy its sense of humor, which revolves around its willingness to poke fun at the first and more popular installments in the franchise and also of the video game industry's commercial mentality in general.

Would be awesome if MS had a killer 3D platform game. Sony's given up on the genre, so it would be ncie to have something in competition with Nintendo. Conker sequel, or Banjo. Come on MS, deliver the goods, so I can care about Xbox again!

Second party is a third party  company conracted (commissioned) to make games for a first party. If the first party owns the IP (not just the individual game) the title is first party. This is what Insomniac is to Sony and has been for so long (along with quanitc dream and Remedy for Microsoft with Quantum Break). This is also what Rare was for Nintendo.

Nahh, I'd say Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. WAY better games than the #d Mario's. Much more fun!

Yes...second party is the name for a company that is contracted to make a first party IP for a first party brand. MS had a deal because they wanted to keep Gears from Sony.  Sony already had plenty of games and wasnt running to PC developers to make exclusives, so MS had a whole garden of places to look for exclusive games. Sony was busy working on their own internal way of developing games when Microsoft got Miass Effect and made the deal with Bioware for exclusivity of the game on console since they published it. Buying gears was the smartest move Microsoft ever made because they cannot internally do any better (hence why stopped working on the new IP Black Tusk was making and rebranded the team with newly released Sony and irrational game developers(ontop of the team they already had) as the coalition. 

 Bungie left Microsoft because they valued their independence and wanted to work on other projects. Microsoft is the type of company that will become dependent on a surefire IP and milk it to death. Lucky for them, they know that we will still buy it if were fans. If I only owned an Xbox I would be more annoyed, but im not since I can take my focuse on any of the three brands games.

I know that many people (who don't understand who the second party really is) use that colloquial term to describe third party studios with strong ties to one of the console manufacturers, but that term is far from official. Has any developer ever declared that they are a "second party developer"?

Perhaps the developers who design second-person-shooters. ;)

Funny guy (LOL)....second person shooters. Yeah, but there are explainations of second party where if one just looked it up. We had this discussion about whether Gears was second party years ago on VG Chartz. Theres always going to be some argument over it, but if you look it up, it exists.