Halo was going to be revolutionary regardless of which genre it was in. Apple and steve jobs was counting on it showcasing apple products as potential gaming platforms . Once Microsoft saw Apple wasnt going to buy bungie they bought them. They just needed them to develop the game for them. Halo Wars is not going to take the world by storm, Fable was ok, but set no real standards fo the RPG genre. I dont even remember the last time that game challenged anyone. Rare went from the most interesting company with Nintendo to the most uninteresting company with Microsoft. It seems the most valuable thing Microsoft has from that property are the IPs  they made with Nintendo and not them.  The genre Microsoft has always excelled at was simulation games. Ive been playing their flight simulator games since I was young and Forza and project gotham are probably the highest quality creations to come out of their studios. Halo was a great acquisition and so was Gears. Microsoft is smart to put all the money behind those two franchises because quite frankly they've got nothing else that can push consoles outside of third party.  Microsoft did prompt the genre change, but again Halo was poised to be great regardless of genre, hence why Steve Jobs showed the tech demo off in good spirits.

Nintendo are not on their last legs. I cannot even  begin to remember a console they havent profited on. Microsoft has the money and they buy up hot real estate to stay relevent, because got knows their first party isnt capable of doing it themselves. Of the big three, Microsoft is the least capable of the three, but their strength is and has always been that they have money. 

Sony's success does go hand in hand with not only their exclusives, but because unlike Microsoft and Nintendo they get that all parties involved are important. You see...

Sony has both strong first second and third party which allows them to appeal to the largest chunk of gamers available in the console realm. Their competition cannot attest to that. They are the jack of all trades but only a master of some, whilst Microsoft is great at third party and online, they are terrible at first party exclusives. Where Nintendo is not proficient at online or third party, they are amazing at first and second party ip's. Sony does not have those gaping holes in their game which again, keeps them a step ahead of the competition should they focus everything into a product against them.

Really?  I figured I framed it clearly: if given that kind of allowance building new studios would be more beneficial.  Of course they could spend more but I'm focusing on which option would've been money 'more well spent' in the long run.

Halo was originally an RTS, but Microsoft made the decision to change the game and make it an fps. It was also the first major fps online game on consoles and now a lot of great fps games became a thing on console because of MS. Sony has been horrible in terms of AAA first party titles. Horizon Zero dawn is their first big budget AAA title since Uncharted 4 (a year apart). Sony only looks good because of some of the niche japanese game support they get, but not many westerns care about for the most part. Microsoft will have crackdown 3, halo wars 2, forza 7, state of decay 2, sea of theives and probably more games to go with the scorpio in terms of AAA titles. While Sony big AAA games are gt sport (pales in comparison with forza 6 let alone forza 7) and horizon zero dawn (excited for this game) this year. Microsoft always focuses on the back half of the year because that is where most of the money is going to be made during the year.

Also, Microsoft helped with Gears of war which push the 3rd person shooter genre. 

Really? Sony has horrible first party? LOL.....

No offense, but the reason why everyones asking Microsoft where the real games are is because there are no big new first party IP. The games you mentioned outside of Crackdown and state of decay are not highly andicipated, and none of them are really considered big games. Microsoft hasnt had a fresh new major AAA IP since Gears of War (2006) and the only reason I can count that as first party is because they purchased them. This means they havent had a major first party IP in eleven years. The last major AAA IP Microsoft made themselves was Forza and that was in 2005. Sony was willing to drop Nathan Drake in order to let Aloy take the helm for Sony. You conveniently forgot the last of us as well. This means Sony's last major new AAA IP to drop came last less than four years ago. There are plenty of first, second and third party exclusives that Sony has, which is why this month is essentially dominated by them no differnt than January.

If you didnt notice, theres a reason why Nintendo and Sony have been shying away from 4th quarter. Its not that they are scared of what Microsoft has to offer, but rather the market saturation that tends to occur because everyones gunning for the Christmas season. It was a mess and only one Sony exclusive was in it which was the Last Guardian. 

LOL Microsoft helped epic with their month, no offense, but Microsoft couldnt come up with a new IP on par with Gears if they tried on their own. Even Phil spencer admitted that he tried to make games like Uncharted but failed to see it done. Thats why he paid to have tomb Raider as an exclusive to stay competitive with Sony. You can look it up. Microsoft knows Nintendo and Sony are more capable of pumping out high quality exclusives than they are. Thats why spencer will continue to congratulate them.

The real problem is Microsoft couldnt see the forest for the trees. Destiny would've been an exclusive for them had they allowed Bungie to grow into two teams. Destiny has been a pet project of bungie since before even Halo, I believe and that couldve been the major exclusive they needed. Regardless, its out now. They wanted to keep Bungie on Halo duty for many years to come and that doesnt always work with creative entities.

Sony and Nintendo were headed in that direction, no different than motion gaming and the switch but it could happen. Do you have any articles on this?