Sony stated earlier in the gen that they cannot afford to invest in as much first party as last gen. You can look this up. As for the sparse part I think they were referring to AAA first party when it came to 2015, but again...that was made up for with the promise of 2016. Horizon looks beautiful and Uncharted is my most anticipated game next year. Seeing that Sony said that, Microsoft would be wise to start getting cut throat and paying third party to make first party IP's and then just dedicate studios to supporting those titles since they arent good at making first party ips themselves.

I never said that the game with the bigger marketing budget was better. The two games Microsoft has exclusive for the year are critically acclaimed sequels to two AAA franchises which are now considered major players. If you choose to downplay that, thats on you guys. As i've always said, Sony gamers have a much larger taste compared to Xbox gamers because they've been used to a large and varied combinations of genres vs Xbox gamers which pretty much tends to the AAA or shooter centric genres with a couple of unique titles sprinkled here or there. MS knows how to make money and they know what sells. That is for sure and they are proving it right now with less titles to their name than Sony (in general).

Sony did blow their load in 2015 (meaning besides the mid tier titles theres not much of note. They saved their E3 by basically revealing 2016-2017 hype) , most of what they showed had nothing to do with 2015. They essentially leaked most of 2016 while Microsoft held those cards close to their chest until Gamescom. The only real new IP Microsoft unveiled is Recore and....just WTF to that game. I dunno. We shall see, but I am pumped about Gamescom for sure. Thats pretty much what E3 was...securing 2015 for MS and Sony preparing everyone for 2016.

Persona is always in the best RPG category just like Halo is in the best FPS, its just that Halo is more often than not considered for GOTY since creation. It should be considered common sense by now that Halo 5 will be a front runner.

Its timed, but its exclusive for 2015. There is no way around that no matter how much you try to rationalize that. No doubt Microsoft will throw it in Sony's face with bundles as well so get ready for the holidays. The Xbox hype is going to be pretty big for Black Friday even though Sony will win the year.

Gears, Halo and Tomb Raider (with a little Forza on the side) is enough to secure what Sony cannot fight for in 3rd and 4th quarter.

Again, the last three Halo games came in 6th, 9th and 10th place overall according to GOTY blog. The Halo franchise hasn't been a front runner since the original. I'm not saying that Halo 5 won't win any awards but if the past repeats itself (as it often does) expect it to get clobbered by Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3 (among others).