It does because for brand loyalty and recognition.

Of course it makes a difference. On a 1st party you know the dev style, type and quality of the game, the chances for sequel and that it will remain exclusive. On 3rd party exclusives there is a lot more variation in style, quality and others depending on the choosen studio. And you will dependant of them on sequels releases and exclusiviness keep.

On a second note a 1st party can be counted indepedent of the market or console situation and easier to manage release window. 3rd parties will be harder to get exclusivity if your console is doing bad.

Nintendo can do great even when selling few consoles because their IP sells great. Sony would strugle with no 3rd party multiplat, but don't need exclusivity to do good. MS with no multiplats would die, with no 3rd exclusives they wouldn't differentiate from competition.

And this is why Sony can make comebacks and/or dominate a gen, Ninty can be relevant even on reduced HW sales and MS struggles to compete if they don't get all the advantages they had last gen and have thrown away this gen.

Sony has Beyond and Heavy Rain......I wouldn't call that "too many". Most recently with LOU, which was excellent at storytelling. That's about it.

Now that isn't fair to call MS copying. Its the evolution of Halo, to make it a captivating story that doesn't have to rely on the extended universe to flesh it out. It's a standard that should be done by everyone, not "copying". Like MS isn't copying Sony by including Bluray, its just the standard is all.

Your saying Sony deliberately invests in games that will be ultimately not make profit (2012 comes to mind) to please its forum dwellers? lol please don't be so naive.

You see, Gears represents MS now. They bought them. It is now part of their portfolio. Doesn't matter where it started, you have to realize that capitalism ensures that whatever a company buys, it becomes a part of their identity going forward.

And I also resent the notion that pumping out the same IP over and over again is wrong or whatever. I for one can't get enough of Halo and I appreciate every release (game or extended universe) MS throws at me. Some may like new ideas thrown around all the time, but that kinda means you may not get a sequel. Guess it depends on what you like and how invested you like to be in a IP.

I think because the obvious offender here is MS we are pretending to play nice. Of course it does.

 For 3rd party games the term "exclusive" itself is a bullshit marketing trick to hide the fact that the game you are buying is  essentially  not part of the company that made the proprietary gaming device, the console, but the product of a business deal concerning publishing rights.

 And I'm saying proprietary gaming device because that's the issue, the company that makes this locked piece of hardware has the duty to produce content on a steady basis. With 3rd party exclusives there's no guarantee for that and we all know it. MS bought the rights to a tone of games, for the 360 when it was beneficent for THEM followed by a 3 year drought.

In fact, saying "exclusive" for a 1st party game is redundant. Mario and Uncharted games are not JUST exclusives, they are Nintendo and Sony games respectively. For me that's the whole reason of buying a console, otherwise I would just game on the PC. Each platform has its own personality because of the games developed by 1st party companies.

As opposed to the PCs, consoles are an investment. You expect them to be worthy even after years when the hardware itself is severely outdated exactly because they have dedicated, customized (thematically) and optimized (technically) software. When it comes to MS, they just buy the rights to the flavor of the month, they should buy the talent instead because that's when I know my investment in their console is a good choice.

 You cannot make proprietary hardware without proprietary software.

Sony has a lot more story-driven games than Heavy Rain, Beyond and TLOU. The 4 Uncharted games have a story-structure like an Indiana-Jones-movie, Heavenly Sword and the 3 inFamous games also have a very cinematic vibe.

Then you have all the story-telling games with narrators in the off: 6 God of War games, Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet 1 + 2, Puppeteer...

Most of my favorite games are story-driven: the above on Playstation, Alan Wake + Fable on Xbox, Zelda on Nintendo-platforms, Ace Attorney + Professor Layton on Nintendo handhelds, point&click adventures on PC and many multi-platform games: all titles of Telltale Games, Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Half-Life, Mass Effect, Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Zero Escape...

It matters to ppl who buy a certain console for exclusives

For example, Titanfall is exclusive, but Titanfall 2 won't be...

So for the guy that wants to play it... He's just like, "ehhh I can just wait til it comes to Ps4"

There may be a slight advantage to first party exclusives because people know the game will remain exclusive unlike third party games where rumors of going multiplatform almost always persist.

No. Sony has much more than that. Resistance, Heavenly Sword, Heavy Rain, Beyond, Uncharted, Last of Us...keep going. Sony makes those types of games. Remember Sony also makes movies and they like that cinematic touch in their games. You seem to forget just to discredit where they've always been going with their games. Sony has two styles. 1) Cinematic action mix 2) Pixar-like style for their platformers. This was the main reason they were so close with insomniac and purchased Naughty Dog two gens ago. Sony knows what type of games they want to make. Even though they sent Naughty Dog on a path of action games away from Pixar-like games they still had Insomniac and Super Punch. Look at how many companies today are copying Uncharteds style of using camera tricks to inrease immersion. Watchdogs does it, Tomb Raider does it. The list goes on and on. Of course Uncharted took parts from numerous games but as a package Uncharted set the standard on its own for storytelling.

It is very fair to say Microsoft is copying. Its not an evolution that was planned for Halo, Microsoft goes with the flow and lets developers sort things out for themselves. 343 wanted to tweak the development process of Bungie even though their engine was build solidly on the Reach engine. They said they increased the lighting and pushed the 360 to its limit. If Bungie was still first party at Microsoft Halo would not have looked that good. Take a look at Destiny. Bungie is a gameplay over graphics type of company thats how it always was for Xbox games until Microsoft aligned themselves with Remedy Games who now makes story driven games for MS. 

Remedy was the only dev who made exclusives for Microsoft who knew how to make a proper story driven game and if MS is smart they'll snatch them up.