Arguably the publisher with the most to prove in the coming Years is Microsoft Studios. A lot of money is being pushed into 1st party development with Black Tusk and 343i. A lot of potential.

Rare have been more family focused this generation, which I dont like. The Kinect focus took away some of the core focus that the then Microsoft Game Studios had. This worked for the better though, really, as Kinect pushed the 360 into its best Years on the market. 

I like Microsoft games. They have been fun and straight to the point. Gears of War as a series had me hooked for Years and Halo is as strong as ever. The problems for me come with the B-Tier MS games. Fable and Forza just dont do it for me. I loved the original Fable, but Fable 2 shook me the wrong way and Fable 3 didnt appeal to me enough to warrant a purchase after a short rental stint. Forza, I dont need due to other racing games covering that "gap". The C-Tier includes Alan Wake, which as far as Im concerened is an under rated gem.

All in all they did a good job over the last 7 Years. Somewhat reliant on Halo and Forza, but then again, why not keep pushing out games from successful franchises?

I think it's very fitting that you put "game" in parentheses. Games seem very parenthetical to their whole operation.

I kid, of course... or do I?!

LOL

They remind me of Wario

How is Forza a B-Tier game?
And how is Alan Wake a C-Tier game?

Both are AAA, and both are exceptional. Alan Wake was one of my favourite games this gen, and Forza is arguably the best racing franchise there is today.

Anyway, that aside, I do feel that MS has a lot to prove this coming gen. They need to deliver a lot more IPs, and they really have to diversify their 1st party catalogue so that their highest quality games aren't just shooters and racers.

Your critique of them would largely be my own: their A-list games generally do great, and while they're not for me, are clearly ambitious, but they seem to have very little idea of what to do outside that small group of A-list games.

From a market perspective, Rare is bigger than ever, but does anyone recognize Rare as an independent entity anymore?

"Sales". Thats the answer.

While I still love Halo and Alan Wake, their other titles have seem to fizzled out with me

They need at least 10 new exclusive first party ip's before I would buy the next box

While I have not played many of their first party games, the ones I have played has been mildly enjoyable.
I would not mind buying a Xbox, but their 1st party titles are not that appealing to me. Let's see what Nextbox has to show us.

Everyone has a different opinion on the criteria for AAA and B and C and all that crap and no one is really right, it's useless to bicker about it. I would certainly agree that Forza and Alan Wake are both top tier games.