How important are first party games to a console?

[Wman1996]

They are quite important.

For Nintendo, they are do or die. Even Nintendo platforms with large third-party support (either by numbers or quality), still are moved mostly by first-party games. The NES/Famicom could still have the third-party library it has, but without Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Duck Hunt it wouldn't go far.
They helped Sega a lot as well. Now I get that Sega's only sure-fire hardware hit was the Mega Drive/Genesis, but Sega's games attributed a lot to that platform's success.
Microsoft is interesting. Halo: Combat Evolved single handedly kept the Xbox console from failing. I say that because the hardware sales of the Xbox were nothing to celebrate. But Halo, Halo 2, and Xbox Live ensured that a future Xbox was possible. Xbox 360 thrived with first-party games, but a lot with third-parties as well. And the Xbox One has very few true exclusives. And the first-party games it has aren't very acclaimed.
Sony seems to be the only one who can coast by without massive first-party support. Don't get me wrong, first-party games have helped make PlayStation what it is. But it wasn't Gran Turismo (though this game helped), Spyro, or Ape Escape that turned the tide to make the PS1 a titan. It was Final Fantasy VII. And it was GTA (a timed third-party exclusive) that helped contribute to the massive success of the PS2. PS1 and PS2 had massive amounts of exclusives that weren't first-party. With PS3 and PS4, that has changed due to increased competition from Nintendo and Microsoft, as well as PC.

Last edited by Wman1996 - on 02 July 2020