The games you thought were 'failures' will probably end up selling another couple of million before gen is over. The Ps3 hasn't hit the 50% mark as far as total console sales go. Games like Uncharted 2, and Killzone 2 will eventually be bought by new console owners in the next few years especially since they will be 20-30 dollar 'greatest hits'.

They won't go on to sell 10 million, but 5 million would be a reasonable goal for them.

That is SO true, even I do it and I consider myself more educated about games than the average person.

So it's a matter of making you're game THAT game, like platformer = Mario, RPG = Final Fantasy, Shooter = Call of Duty Halo

People buy Nintendo for Nintendo  X box/360 benefits from  its PC roots so MS's halo is its big franchise Sony has GT5 as it  one it is seen as the original great racing sim , Sony doesn't have the big First party hitters apart from GT but neither does MS take away Halo and your left with Fable and that sells about the same as Sonys first party's titles, and has to the 3rd party's ,after Sonys slow start to this gen  games like MW2  now seem to be selling in line with the differences in each  consoles sales (referring to the Hd twins)

From peoples responses, it seems the key thing people seem to be saying is that the Sony IPs arnt as good in quality. imo there are other games that are not necessarily as good in quality that have mega sales. for example something like MW2 is on track to selling 19 maybe 20 mil copies, yet Killzone 2, which seems to have had a better critical reception than MW2 has sold substantially less. and imo the question isnt about quality, its about user base.

the shooter user base is predominatly based in the US market, Halo 3 reached (no pun intended) 8 mil there alone. its clear that the real answer is that the PS3 just isnt as popular as the PS2 or the 360 in the US. that to me is why the IPs, however critically acclaimed arnt doing the same numbers. the only thing Sony can do to change that is what their doing right now, which is flooding the market with everything they can, music, video streaming, and strong first party titles.

Yeah I know because the COD series was never done before so thats why it sells so much on each consol. They were the first people to do a FPS and the Halo series was so original. Like there was never Sci fi FPS's before the Halo franchise either and thats why Halo is a hugh success. Its funny how theres 100 other FPS games out there yet some people only compare 360 vs PS3 and think the 360 games the original game ignoring all the other games with the same simularities.

Well,

I am glad that you have your opinion, and no issues with sharing it, but many of us DO like how Blizzard does things.  Blizzard has a committment to polish, and furthermore, it seems rather hypocritical to laude the virtues of Sony and then trash Blizzard in the same post.  Both companies are very good at taking pre-existing ideas to new levels of refinement.  Blizzard's style is fine, Sony's style is fine.

I don't like WoW either, but I don't like MMO's in general.  Still, the fact is that (while long in the tooth) WoW is still the most recognizible MMO and it was the best of its kind at release (unless you seriously believe that EQ and its ilk were good).  All pre-WoW MMO's sucked, and neither WoW or any MMO since has changed the formula enough for me to give it a second thought.  Note, I don't lump Guild Wars into that mess because of its use of instancing.

Finally, I own Age 1, Age 2 Conquerers and Age 3

Age 3 sucks, Age 2 was the pinnacle of the series.  Starcraft, while lagging behind Age 2 in some respects was the MOST fun I had in a single player campain EVER.  So, how exactly does Age "slay" starcraft???

Reviews:  NOPE

Popularity:  NOPE

Sales:  NOPE

Cultural Impact:  NOPE

Single Player:  NOPE

Graphics:  NOPE

Production Values:  NOPE

AI/Pathing:  YEP

Multiplayer:  PERHAPS*

*  And that is only if you are still burned about LAN and other features removed from BNet2 (which I don't like, but still.)

The biggest reason is marketing. My 16 year old cousin was over visiting from england a few months ago and he never heard of Uncharted 2 but he did know about Heavy Rain because Sony actually marketed that game over here. People won't buy what they don't know about and a lot of gamers don't follow gaming sites to know whats what. The only way games get known to them is through word of mouth and advertising.

" don't like mega franchises because they always tend to dominate everything else and overshadow other great games (at least in the eyes of casuals they do)."

Honestly, if the game is good it'll sell well... that's why "great games" become "Franchises"....

I disagree with sony not being on par with Nintendo in terms of quality. Sony has created more new ips that have potential to become great new franchises than anyone else. Nintendo have become better than they were last gen in terms of quality though imo though.Sony has made more than one big ip btw. I recall Crash Bandicoot becoming quite large(look up the sales data) Also Spyro was nothing to sneeze at either. These two prove that milking can occur when a franchise becomes large (other examples being Halo,Call of Duty, and Guitar Hero) which is not good for anyone. Sales does not equal quality because if it did, Wii Play would be jesus.

Halo Defined Xbox

Gears of War Defined Xbox 360

Thats why they are huge.

Fable is becoming huge aswell , Forza is not at GT Level but sells tons of Milions... If we see CrackDown or Alan Wake they barely pass 600K... CrackDown 1 made what 1.5M ?

LBP2 did 3.7M i think Uncharted 1 and 2 are at 3.5 , God of War at 3M ... GT5 will do better... those are Sony biggest franchises... Kz2 did 2M while not bad it could be better..

So those are pretty good sales imo... Conviction on 360 is at 1.3M , ME2 at 1.9M and ME1 at 2.?M so Sony gamesare selling better or as good as many 360 exclusives.

They are not at Gears of War or Halo Level but they are at Fable , Forza and CrackDown Level...