The state of Microsoft's 1st/2nd party

[Lord N]

EaglesEye379 said:
As a 360 fan, I am not at all worried about the current state of Microsoft Games Studios as you put it. If you want to compare the top MS vs Sony developed or published games, you are comparing Halo 3, Gears, Forza 2, Mass Effect vs Motorstorm, Resistance, Uncharted, Gran Turismo Prologue.

And with that, MS wins on both sales, popularity and critical acclaim. Since I havent played those Sony games, this is the neutral way we can compare them and lets not kid around, on neutral scales, MS made better games that sold more. Why would I be worried or doubt they will come up with the goods again? Arguably, the fastest selling exclusive game for PS3 this gen so far is MGS4 which is third party so theres still alot to prove. The question is whether LBP can hit the lofty levels that Sony wants and that is yet to be seen.

Rare/Lionhead/Turn 10 and the internal MGS studio has very big projects upcoming and I still say Mass Effect 2 will most likely be exclusive.

 

Gears and Mass Effect are not MS owned, and first and second party titles are what the thread is about.

MS's first and second party is easily the weakest of the three. Other than Halo, their first and second party titles are nothing to write home about as far as sales are concerned. Each successive game in the PGR series has sold worse, and Forza has only outsold Motorstorm by about 500 000, and the latter was actually ahead before they both saw significant manufacturer bundling(neither of which is good considering that Forza realeased to an install base of 10 million vs Motorstorm being a launch title, and Forza was bundled with a $280 console vs Motorstom being bundled with a $500 console).

MS really needs to work on their first and second party instead of trying to buy exclusivity on third party titles all the time. Even with all that's happened this generation, most PS2 exclusives have only gone multi-platform. This is because the 360 just doesn't have a big enough install base to warrant exclusive third-party support, and the PS3 install base is too big for third-parties to just ignore regardless of MS's moneyhatting. The only way to get mass exclusive third-party support is to have the marketshare of the NES, PS1, or PS2, and it doesn't look like MS is going to accomplish that any time soon.

Even when it comes to profits, first and second party titles give better yields than third party, especially when the console manufacturer has to pay for them.