Gears is a dated TPS in it's gameplay and G5 open world is pathetic. VanQuish remains unmatched in best TPS gameplay. Monolith know how to make open world games that are solid. Xenoblade 1 was near unbreakable in that engine. Not saying glitches don't exist in Monolith games or BOTW but yet to run into them. Valve doesn't make anything anymore. I don't know of any studio on Nintendo's attention to detail. I only know of 3 individual developers. Kamiya,Itsuno and Sakurai.

Nintendo is more talented. Better quality games with smaller teams. Nintendo is greatly unmatched in first-party studio talent. Sony outs out a lot of good looking highly produced games but standard game mechanics that don't stand out for the most part. Nintendo is often innovative in software as well as hardware. People may clown on Wii sports but it brought in people who don't normally play games. Sony tried to copy that with PS Move and Move sports.

Horizon and BOTW going for that open world. BOTW has a lot more attention to details like shooting the grass with fire and the grass burns for example. (not saying Nintendo invented this btw) Horizon nothing happens as everything is just a setting but not really an interactive world. HZD is pretty typical of most AAA big world games. Games like that are more worried about completing a character animation than a character's action.

I've seen plenty of times Sony try to chase a Nintendo idea in software. Most notably Smash Bros. Before someone tries to say Mario Maker copied little big planet. Mega Man Powered up for one came out before LBP and two Nintendo had the concept for Mario Maker in the 90s but didn't have the ability to do it. Oh and Excitebike track editor Not Saying Sony copied them but I am saying Nintendo didn't.

I think the most ambitious Sony franchise the last decade or at least one of them didn't have a large budget. Gravity Rush. Don't get me wrong it had some problems esp in mission design but the flying in that game is genuinely the best sense of superhero flying ever in a game. Spiderman did have a great Swinging mechanic...but the open world is pretty Ubisoft. So once the checklist in the map is done and the story is done. Nothing brings me back. BOTW I can always go back. Sony and MS are not. "dur Naughty Dog" yeah in the visual set-pieces but not in gameplay. Pretty standard shit. Feels dated. Days gone everything from visuals to characters to writing to menus to UI to gameplay feels like every game released that gen. It is just so damn generic. Not terrible but just another one of those. 

Despite how much money MS has spent. All those studios put out glitch filled problematic games and do anything but innovate as they have to keep the status quo t appeal to the mass. They are just studios that put out stuff that suffers from every bad AAA game habbit. So meh.

Nintendo can make anything they want and usually be great. Nintendo puts a focus,philosophy and level of critical thought into their gameplay with attention to the smallest details that are unmatched in the industry by a long shot. Nintendo are master craftsmen at game design. Mechanics and little gameplay touches.

ftr I do like some first party games. I liked Spider-Man a lot. Just because I don't think Sony are the craftsmen Nintendo is. Doesn't mean I dislike Sony nor love every Nintendo series. NOt into a lot of Nintendo franchises tbh.

Fire Emblem

Xenoblade

Sin and Punishment

Metroid

Zelda

Golden Sun

Have you played these?

i know the games you mentioned above have mature themes but even their Art-Style is Cartoony not like Playstation and Xbox Art-Styles.

Its not just the story themes that matter but even the Graphic Styles they use which are more relatable to a kid and shows what audience the creators are targetting

So many answers and not a correct one.

Nintendo will continue be to be undisputed master because they put game play first.

There are a lot of words in this thread and they are all about how pretty Sony games are and how polished the games looks. But not a word about game play.

Unknowingly they answer the question to why Sony plays second fiddle to Nintendo.

Disagree.

Sony is more talented. They need bigger teams, because they need to bring everything in their games. Not just fun gameplay mechanics, but high end graphics, motion capture, acting, well written and deep characters and enjoyable and emotionally impactful stories that will resonate with people. They can create a whole new world that has no connection to anything they've done before and make it a success. That is craftsmanship.

Simpler games can do with smaller teams and it's easy to perfect a simple formula. Nintendo has these 4 or 5 core franchises they have been honing for decades now, it would be odd if they weren't as good as they can be by now. Only talent needed there is to not slip up and start degenerating. And gimmicks, I guess you can call them "innovative" but at the end of the day they are just new way of buttering your sandwich. I don't like gimmicks on any platform.

BOTW chose to have burning grass as a game mechanic, Horizon didn't. Maybe they just didn't think of it, or maybe it wasn't worthwhile in a game that was already extremely pushing the hardware.

Copying others is what everybody does in any business, so that's that. No point in trying to untangle who did what first and when.

I guess it comes down to what makes you tick as a gamer, not trying to hate on anybody here.