Both the ps3 &  the Wii are defined by a range of recognised  , quality , exclusive ,1st/2nd party franchises which help both consoles to differentiate themselves.  Both companies recognise the importance of 1st  party suppport.

Wii : SSBB ,  MK WII , WII FIT/SPORTS/PLAY/MUSIC , ZELDA TP , MP3 ETC.

PS3 : UNCHARTED ,  GT5 , LBP , K2 , SOCOM:C , R2 ,  VC ETC.

360  : Halo 3 , Fable 2.....Banjo Kazooie ?

MS relies  heavily on 3rd party support ; Gears , Mass Effect ,  Bioshock ,Star Ocean , Splinter Cell  are all 3rd party efforrt .  This means we can't be certain of any future 3rd party support , even if ms is supper rich  they are in this to make a profit and once they have the install base moneyhating will loose  it's viability , how will this affect the 720  ? with  ms reducing 1st party support(http://www.ensemblestudios.com/) it should be a major concern to us all.

opinions ?

Given how many people deride the Wii for an alleged lack of third-party support, I don't think the 360's heavy reliance on third parties is much of a problem. It can be risky, but as long as they can keep moneyhatting third-party games they have nothing to fear.

Gears, Mass Effect, Forza, PGR, Viva Pinata (and yes, Halo, Fable, Banjo) - all published directly by Microsoft.  You don't really have a point.

Well if they are super rich, they can buy more devs so they can make their 1st party games better.

published is not the same as 1st party.

Microsoft have deep pockets while Sony are in financial trouble. Microsoft's situation is less uncertain, and more likely to retain (and gain) 3rd party support.

Forza is first party .. Viva Pinata is first party, too. Both Turn 10 and Rare are owned by Microsoft.

I think the PS3 and XBox 360 heavily depend on each other and the PC to justify the large development budgets of their games. In the long run this is a very fragile relationship being that a lot of PC enthusiasts look for games that push their systems to the limit, and one of the console manufacturers will eventually release a new console. While the PC developer may have challenges without the console revenue in the short term, the PC developer always has the option of releasing a port of their game to the next generation console when it is released.

360 does hav less 1st party exclusive but you got to judge the weight they carry, Halo>MGS+Resistance. Gears and mass effect are not third party, but second party.

True first party games are actually somewhat rare. Publishers/console makers typically prefer working with independent studios, rather than owning studios themselves. This is equally true for all the current console makers.

SSBB was made by GameArts, a third party developer. Pretty much the only games Nintendo have made themselves this generation is Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, Zelda TP, and Animal Crossing. In addition Metroid Prime 3 was made by Nintendo owned US based Retro Studios. Everything else published by Nintendo have for the most part been developed by third parties.

GT5 is being developed by Polyphony who are owned by Sony. I'm not sure about the SOCOM developers, but as far as i know both Media Molecule (LBP), Guerrilla (KZ2), and Naughty Dog (Uncharted) are all independent developers. Insomniac is not only independent of Sony, but they also fully own their own IP's. They can port Resistance/Ratchet and Clank to the 360 any time if they want to. And Valkyria Chronicles was made by Sega.

As for the 360, Bungie (Halo) is now independent of Microsoft. Lionhead (Fable) has as far as I know always been an independent developer.

Anyway, weak first party support has never been a problem for any console in the past. In fact it's pretty much the other way around. Just look at how the first Playstation crushed the Saturn/N64 more or less entirely with third party titles. Third party support is what makes or breaks a console.