Mega Franchises:

Sony 3 generations:

• Gran Turismo

Microsoft 2 generations:

• Halo
• Gears of War

Nintendo 5 generations plus Arcade titles.

• Mario
• Donkey Kong
• Duck Hunt
• Zelda
• Mario Kart
• Mario Party
• Wii Sports franchises
• Wii Fit
• Probably another one or two that I missed.

Anyway Nintendos rate of massive franchise generation is simply higher. Probably this is due to the one man Miyamoto who had a significant hand in many of these games. Its not that Sony sucks, its just that one person is probably worth as much as all their studios combined. Luckily for Sony Miyamoto will retire eventually.

Gears is third party, that shouldn't be there silly!  I also feel like Zelda is on the low side for mega hits, it's big but it's difficulty or something might be holding it back.  And Duck Hunt isn't really a franchise.  

But yes, most of their high rate is Miyamoto's doing.  I think Sony will be happy when he retires, as you say. 

RolStoppable should change his username to RolUnstoppable. Talk about taking names of alts and punching in numbers.

Here is what I believe:

The market by the lifetime sales of a game determines whether a game is good or not. Period.

As a niche gamer myself, I went through that adolescent phase in the late 1990s/early 2000s where I thought Mario games and cutesy games were retarded games for little kids. Well, guess what? The games I was playing at the time could not sell a quarter of the copies of a Mario game even if they were marketed equally. As I have aged, I have since come to realize niche gaming has it's place, but niche gaming alone would not be able to support the industry today to an extent where this would be the last generation of consoles.

Gamers, hence the market, are not stupid at all. Gamers want games where you can pick them up and play them without worrying about re-orienting yourself to what level you are at, what skills you need your character to develop, how many collectibles you need before you get the master sword, where the collectibles are, and on. Thusforth, games where you can put them down just as easily as picking them up are likely to cater to a larger audience and sell more.

As for Sony, it comes down to the games and marketing. Sony needs more easily accessible platformers, motion sports games, dance games, party games, and less niche titles such as Shin Megami Tensei, which are loved by a devoted few, but players like myself who are fairly well informed have never heard of because Sony was too lazy to market the game outside of Japan.

Sony is in no mean or shape "doomed." Sony has a lot of classic franchises they can revive such as Ratchet & Clank, Jax and Dexter, Crash Bandicoot, Legacy of Kain and on. Instead, Sony has decided to go with the usual God of War, Gran Turismo, and Uncharted path to such an extent where their PS3 software offerings are just as culpable in Sony being in last place this generation as the initial entry price for a PS3 until the price drop.

Sony should revive a franchise such as Crash Bandicoot. I will tell you with 100% certainty right now, if a Legacy of Kain game was announced by Sony tomorrow, I would be purchasing a PS3 that day.

I guess I hashed it out a little too quickly.

Miyamoto is one man, but hes a freak of the indusry. How many massive franchises can be attributed directly or indirectly to the man?