A somewhat common argument about PlayStation was that prior to the PlayStation 3, Sony's own first party games weren't relevant or even any good. In fact, there are people who argue that the PS1 and PS2 were only good because of the massive third party support they had like GTA and Metal Gear Solid.

Now of course, PlayStation has never been solely defined by first party franchises the same way Nintendo has, and it's true that strong third party relations had always been one of PlayStation's biggest strengths.

But this idea that Sony themselves never had hit franchises or successful games prior to the PS3 is complete nonsense. I can somewhat understand the argument for PS1, specifically the earliest years of that system when it was just starting out and Sony was just building up their teams. But for the PS2? Sony is responsible for half the games most people associate with that system. God of War, ICO, Ratchet & Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Gran Turismo 3 & 4, Dark Cloud, Twisted Metal Black, SOCOM, Shadow of the Collosus, Rouge Galaxy, Hot Shots Golf 3 and Fore!, Ape Escape 3, The Getaway.

Even the PS1 eventually built up a fairly strong first party roster with MediEvil, Crash and Spyro, Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Parappa The Rapper, Um Jammer Lammy, Hot Shots Golf games, Wild Arms, Arc the Lad, Legend of Dragoon, Syphon Filter.

Now were most of these these as high selling as GTA or MGS? No, but they were still successful and well regarded games in their own right, equally as synonymous with the system as any third party offering.

Honestly, the argument that PlayStation 2 in particular didn't have a strong first party lineup, feels like an argument made by people who never actually owned a PlayStation 2, or if they did, it was only as a secondary system to the Xbox or even the GameCube, with the PS2 treated like a glorified MGS, DMC, JRPG delivery box.

The argument was that apart from Gran Turismo, Playstation never had a consistently popular franchise until Uncharted 2. Which is relatively true. Gran Turismo was by far Sony's biggest IP until The Last of Us came out. Uncharted was big, but remained a distant second to GT until Uncharted 4.

Not many really said that the Sony of old lacked quality. It's just that they weren't popular enough. Spryo and Crash were quite popular but they were neither owned nor developed by Sony, and were only associated with Playstation for a single generation.

It was the mid-late PS4 days where Sony evolved to a more mainstream player.

PS3's first half was weak due to high prices and bad ports. It had little to do with Sony's output.

I never heard that and it's complete bullfucking shit said by the biggest morons. Sony's best first party was on PS1-PS2. When they not only had a lot of quality but a lot of variety.

Well you also have to consider that Sony was very new to gaming compared to most other major publishers at the time. Sony Computer Entertainment was literally a startup at the time of the original PlayStation, so it was obviously going to take time to build a stable of hit games and talented developers.

Still, most of Sony's games on the original PlayStation outside GT sold around 1-2 million copies, which was pretty big back then.

And on PlayStation 2, they regularly sold 2-4 million, so there was a gradual increase in popularity of Sony's games.

The PlayStation 3 was the first Gen that Sony's titles sold well enough to carry a console on its own, which was even more true in the PlayStation 4 days.

But this absurd notion that nobody bought first party games on PS1-PS2 or that they weren't popular is honestly BS.

This is true when it comes to the commercial success of their games.
Sony only had the Gran turismo games sell over 10 million until 2009.

Now they have multiple IP's that sell well over 10 million- Uncharted, The last of us, Horizon, God of war, Spider man, Days gone, Ghost and Helldivers.

Astro bot, Wolverine and Intergalactic could very well join that list by the end of PS5 generation.

So yeah, their first party portfolio has gotten much stronger during the late PS3, PS4 and PS5 generations.

I think that was true for most game companies back then. 10+ million selling franchises were the exception, not the rule for most major publishers. 

People are trying to apply modern sales standards to the gaming market of the past when they're clearly not applicable. 

I don't know if this is true/false. I don't know if it even matters... The consumer experience is the exclusive games on PS1 that weren't on other platforms. Like Pokemon isn't 1st party, but it's a Nintendo game series.

It's only really a recent phenomenon where the hardware manufacturers bought all the software manufacturers (and hardware differences are no longer the main limiting factor in running games on multiple platforms).

They still had amazing games that were critically acclaimed back then that were also decent sellers- Ratchet, jak, Sly, Killzone, Shadow of the colossus, God of war, Socom, litte big planet, Infamous, Resistance and many more that i can't think of right now.

 But when you're comparing 1st party, you have bring up Nintendo. 

Nintendo's got a ton of IP that sell well over 10 million and they've had that since the late 90's. Vs Sony's one IP (Gran Turismo).

That's what makes people say that Sony 1st Party weren't that big compared to that of Nintendo's.

That's no longer the case.

Depends what you mean by 1st party cause Sony owned very few of their big 1st party studios until the mid 2000s with the exception of Santa Monica, though they published many of their games. But if we count Ratchet and Sly then yeah I would actually say the PS2 days were better than the PS3 except for The Last of Us.

Anyways I actually thought the topic was specifically about the first half of the PS3, in which case I would have thrown into the hat that people always forget how weak the first half of the PS4 was. That console killed it as a whole, but 2013-2016 only really had Uncharted 4 and Bloodborne which wasn't even Sony developed.

Nintendo is obviously bigger since they've been in the game longer and have primarily relied on their first party in a way Sony didn't.

But the comparison is more towards third party games. Some people point to the mega-selling franchises like GTA and Metal Gear Solid on PS1 and PS2 as evidence that Sony's first party wasn't popular or very good. But thing is, take away

MGS, GTA, and Final Fantasy, most well known third party games on the PS2, sold roughly on par with most of Sony's games for the system. Devil May Cry was a huge deal in the PS2 era, and the highest selling entry, DMC 3, is only 3 million. For reference, the first God of War sold 4 million. 

So first party was equally important to the PlayStation brand's success in the PS2 era as third party was.