Sony's Franchises

[HappySqurriel]

Bodhesatva said:

I don't personally enjoy Sony's titles as much as I do Nintendo's either, but clearly some people disagree, and Sony's software sales figures HAVE risen sharply in the last 6 years; even over the PS1 sales, which were lower than PS2, but comparable. It's now one of the top 5 software producers.

Again, most Sony games aren't my cup of tea (although I love Team ICO projects and really like the look of "Afrika"), but I think it's silly to suggest that one of the top 5 software manufacturers in the world isn't a legitimate contender for best overall. If Nintendo were number 1 and Sony number 23, I'd agree, but last I checked, Nintendo is number 2 and Sony number 4. Does that mean Nintendo sells more games? Sure, but it's not a "OMG Nintendo crushes Sony" type of situation, either. 

It is difficult to demonstrate with the changes that have taken place on this site over the past little while but Sony is far smaller in terms of sales than Nintendo is:

Japan 

2006

 Publisher Totals:

Console	Week
Nintendo	32,137,197
Square	5,470,216
Bandai	4,755,614
Konami	4,410,126
Sega	3,793,847
Capcom	3,110,657
Sony	2,459,306
Namco	2,428,148
Enix	1,696,136
Koei	1,234,437
Total	68,783,884

2007 

Publisher Totals:

Console	Week
Nintendo	11,802,087
Capcom	2,762,693
Bandai	1,759,499
Sega	1,705,119
Square	1,477,416
Konami	1,327,474
Koei	1,050,998
Namco	852,284
Enix	802,352
Banpresto	582,388
Total	29,603,287

Historically speaking Nintendo has been second in North America and Europe with taking (roughly) 20% of the sales in a year; the 3rd, 4th and 5th place publishers varies every year but (typically) takes 5%-6% of the market.

The difference in sales between Nintendo's 2nd place (probably 1st place this year) and Sony's 4th place (probably lower than 10th place this year) is huge.