Take Gears of War as an example- Epic are an independant developer, but MS own the Gears of War franchise. This means it's a 2nd party title, Microsoft don't own Epic but they own the rights to the game. I'm pretty sure this is what it means anyway.

Now take Uncharted as an example- Sony actually own Naughty Dawg, the developer, as well as the Uncharted name. So this makes it a 1st party title.

At the end of the day it's not really a huge difference, that's why most people consider 2nd party games to be 1st party games.

You forgot Motorstorm, Warhawk and Wipeout for Sony and  PGR for MS

and Lost Odyssey, Too Human

@blackstar

as would the wii (no wii sports)

Lack of killer 1st party studios is one of the 360s only weaknesses. MS need to go on a buying spree to jump start their internal game studios.

Nintendo & Sony 1st party are way better.

Is Hot Shots first party?

In my opinion, Halo pwns all of those games, so I will choose MSFT; however, I can understand if someone chose Sony.

IMO i would say Microsoft for this gen until GOW3 comes out haha

Considering Gear 2 and Halo 3 are 2 of the best games in the world Ive ever played it is M$.

Also dont forget

Lost Odyssey
Blue Dragon
Cry ON.

All games which are second Party on 360.