I do believe Rare > Naughty Dog, especially if we're comparing the same timelines.

Have you seen Bonus Round, Giant Bomb, IGN (IGN are the biggest fanboys too) and other sites actually actively talking about games? The expectation is never high for Microsoft to create games but rather to publish. With Sony when they are low on games all you hear is compaining until Sony gets to where they need to be. Case in point last gen when Sony had no games for like two years because they were mostly developing themselves co-developing (or with second party) so it took a while (ans new IP's tend to).  MS had a great first three years of games because they moneyhatted a good amount of third party to add to their ranks ontop of Rares games only to be topped off by Halo 3, Gears, Fable and Forza on rotation. I mean its like Sony admitting that they actively made Uncharted as an answer to the shooter hype that was being created by Microsoft  after they got Epic to make the game for them so they stopped Naughty Dog from making a Lord of the Rings action-adventure game and they came up with Uncharted. Microsoft then admitted to buying tomb raider because they are not of the developmental prowess as Sony to develop a game of that calibur internally. Hell Sony has helped so many developers develop games on second party that its a wonder how they pump out their own first party. Sony Santa Monica alone must be wondering when their time will come to have their own true new IP. Helll its probably happening as we speaking and I just don't know about it. They've been trying to help Ready at Dawn with their game though. Sony Santa Monica to me is like the Rare of Sony because they just have a wealth of ideas and rarely ever let down. This is why they are considered one of the best devs in the biz right alongside Naughty Dog. 

The expectations are not high on an internal level outside of maintaining Halo, Forza and possibly Gears now (sad that they couldn't even make a freaking new IP with Black Tusk...ugh cop out). On an external level...definitely. They have a great eye for outside developers.

You take off the moneyhatted Japanese support, that could've been on Wii & 360, Sony didn't produce much either in your logic.

List all the first party studios work during PS3 era.

They farted on RARE studions, the stinch is still not gone

However, the people who made RARE when they were one of the top studios in the industry are long gone...

Sony doesn't entirely have to moneyhat japanese support. They know they mostly have Japanese support in the bag because of the Japanese audience tend to buy Playstation over Xbox and Nintendo wasn't primarily competing with them when it came to head to head games.

For instance: 

Exhibit A: Microsoft moneyhats Ninja Gaiden 2. Ninja Gaiden 2 comes out.........and TECMO uses that money to fund a superior PS3 version of Sigma. 

Sony has a unique situation with Japan.

Yes, but RARE pretty much died the day MS bought them...

So right now, unless you think the logo is the core of the studio, ND is one of the top studios in the industry (I'd say many Sony owned studios are)... ND did not stop after the Crash games, it's not their fault that RARE was forced to make kinect games and avatar for the 360...

If batteltoads were broughtback it would be like Killer Instinct, MS would call another studio and ask them, RARE would have nothingto do with this release.

Ninja Gaiden and NG Black were superior to Sigma on PS3.

After their success on Xbox, Sony moneyhatted them to get an below par NG.

NG on Xbox OG averaged at 90's.

That's how they blew all that PS2 money.

Thus far sony has done. Killzone, Infamous: Second Son, Driveclub, Mlb The Show, Infamous First Light, Knack, Entwined.

Soon LBP. Then Bloodborne and The Order. 

Both consoles launches to this point have been mediocre. 3rd parties have been picking up some of the slack. However 2014 itself has been a letdown for games. So i dont know how you can proclaim microsoft is pumping out some high quality exclusives and is better than sony not even a year in.

 Sony never paid for Sigma 2. I know nothing about part one. I'm not going to talk about what I haven't heard or read. Sony had a clause in their contract in case of the epidemic of Microsoft moneyhatting third party exclusives affected them. They didn't complain about it...all they asked was that if you want to put a game on their console and woo their audience throw in the DLC for free for their audience or something special. Tecmo gave Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 extra levels, bosses, outfits and two player trials and more. The only real difference between the Xbox 360 version was the it was sleeker and less bloody on the PS3 ontop of the content. It scored lower in retrospect. Its still for the better part the same game. 

Its sad that Rare didn't evolve into something greater under MS as they did with Sony.