The reason I believe Sony's exclusives can't sell as well as they should this gen.

[Soundwave]

Sony's hasn't been the driving force for their own hardware sales for a long time now.

The first Playstation they had legit blockbusters like Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo, Wipeout, and Parappa.

But PS2 ... not really. ICO wasn't a huge hit. Neither was Killzone or Dark Cloud. I guess there's SOCOM which did alright. The PS2 outpaced everyone on the back of third party exclusives like GTA3 and Final Fantasy X and MGS2/3. God of War was a solid hit, but not exactly a monster seller.

Now that Microsoft (and to a degree Nintendo) and broken Sony's hold on third parties, Sony's internal efforts are high quality, but sorta lost in a sea of similar games.

I think basically when Sony entered the game business in the mid-90s they were the "cool" company and there was a lot of room to create different types of franchises like Gran Turismo aimed at teenagers/older males.

But today, Microsoft has eaten away much of that mindshare/brand marketing. Sony is not "special" anymore, and in the broad scope of things their brand has completely collapsed. It's no longer a big deal to have a Sony.