Pretty sure video games do NOT highlight this 

Sony was the good boy for a lot of this gen. They got heaps of good-will, praise and adoration at the beginning of the gen, simply by not being Microsoft.
They continued to carry that good-will through three largely hype-driven E3 presentations as well.

I'm quite happy that people are willing to give them shit, when they make anti-consumer decisions. Market-leader or not, banning cross-play and locking peoples accounts to their system was anti-consumer. I don't really care if those tactics make 'sense' for them to use. I'm not a Sony stockholder, I'm a consumer. And as a consumer I wan't the best possible experience, wich Sony wasn#t providing at the time anymore.

It took pressure from Industry and consumers, but they did the actual smart thing and yielded to demand instead of sacrificing sales to other platforms just ahead of the Fortnite season 6 launch.

I think it's a natural cicle. Also people are willing to give Nintendo shit over almost anything (and justefiedly so in a lot of cases) and Microsoft never really got back up after the botched launch this generation. I've seen plenty of people criticize their almost non-existent first party and doom and gloom about them going out of the console business alltoghether. Maybe Sony just gets bigger news focus?

Tell me you're kidding, dude.

Try look up the threads hating on the PS4 ports of The Last of Us, Uncharted, and God of War 3. Nintendo  ports gets no heat compared to that.

And with good reason. Why bitch about it. If the ports don't have an audience, they will obviously stop being made.

Ports on Nintendo Switch:
Bayonetta (PS3, XB360)
Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Wii U)
Ne2w Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Wii U)
Pokkén Tournament DX (Wii U)

Ports on Nintendo 3DS:
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Wii)
Hyrule Warriors Legends (Wii U)
Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn (Wii)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (N64)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (N64)
Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (DS)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (Game Boy Advance)
Mario Party: The Top 100 (various)
Metroid: Samus Returns (Game Boy)
Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)
Star Fox 64 3D (N64)
Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (Wii)

I think the matter isnt the amount, but how justified that critism is.
Ei. OP things people are much harsher when it comes to sony, for even little things they get more heavily critisied than the others.

But they didn't 'ban cross-play', it was very much available and more so on many games and some games didn't even get released on Xbox because of MS' own cross-play policy it had to abandon. It was just between rival networks, which no one even really cared about except for some internet moaners.

I would be more happy if Sony came out with a statement and underhandedly mentioned all the shit MS did before about cross play just to rub it in their face and say 'we are the better man' in the situation because of this 1 game MS is moaning about because it's not the market leader. Because i don't think MS would do it if they were the market leader, I think that policy would still exist.

Keeping in mind they wouldn't be sacrificing sales, they are the lead platform, they'll get the sales. When the competition makes you pay to play this free online game, PS4, Nintendo, PC even if you have one that can run it, are all the better choices, Cross-play or not.

Some fanbases are less biased and so while they embrace the product, they still critisize the company when it does something stupid. The same can not be said for every base as those seem to acccept whatever their lord and savior decides.

Anyways, the real criticism is seen in sales, for most Sony's Playstation is the default/main console and that won't change anytime soon whatever you read online.

MS gets criticized for being MS and having lackluster 1st party support.

Nintendo gets criticized because they are like roaches, and keep coming despite past failures.

Sony gets criticized due to them being on top, and fans of other consoles want to knock them down a peg.

There are valid reasons to attack all 3 TBH, for too many reasons to list. It all depends on what is hot in the market to determine which one gets bashed harder at any given time.

when it comes to issues outside of hardware/network issues, i think they get treated the same.

only difference i see is with software. MS seem to get away with far less criticism for what they put out. i remember the first year of ps4, when sony's first party was quiet, and there was endless threads and articles about the state of their first party (ignoring that they had released Last of Us, God of War Ascension, Beyond Two Souls, GT6 and Puppeteer the year before), but MS has had three or four years in a row with an output as bad or worse than ps4's first year and the amount of attention received isn't even close. maybe ms get away with enjoying less expectation than Nintendo and PS.

but by and large there isn't too much difference i don't think

People will complain about anything anyone does, nothing will ever be 100% approved. It's not something exclusive to Sony. Maybe you just follow more PlayStation-related stuff, so you see more complaints about Sony.

There's is one absolute rule in videogame forums....One thing is not really mainstream popular until it is criticized by a lot of people on forums. If you pay attention, games, platforms, persons, that became really popular creates always a bunch of haters that spend every day trying to convince others (but mostly themselves) that the thing that you like is trash. Those haters are people that don't like something becoming really popular because they can't bear that other people, that "stupid", "superficial" people could like something a I like too, so if they like it...., it must be trash, because I'm better than them.

It's a mix of arrogance and jealousy...an attitude of a mentally 10 year child person.