they actually were building their team since the ps1 days.

and they now have more studios than both nintendo and microsoft combine.

also they make genereally trilogies, and change their image fast.

not many are so consistant like GT.

Kid's games??? That's what I see when I look at all of the games on PS Store... Also there are some disc based family fun like LBP and Buzz. Also Eyepet is coming.

Size of studios don't mean anything. Sony doesn't have any recognizable Ip's to the mass market. Gran turismo is a racing simulator. It doesn't exactly get kids excited for joy. Do you think anyone knows who Nathan Drake is outside of hardcore Sony fans? LBP was mostly bought by 25 year old adult males. Not kids like with Mario. That's a world of a difference. Halo is getting their. At the end of this generation, Halo will have a much much bigger brand presence. In lik 2012. Its on the right track.

Partly quality of titles, but moreso brand recognition. Sony drops its notable franchises in favor of new IPs far too often (though sometimes it's not their choice, as was the case with Crash Bandicoot).

Nintendo's titles sell mainly due to the brand name that they built up throughout the NES and SNES generations, but they have the quality to back them up, so the name isn't tarnished. Why is it that Twilight Princess can move over 5 million units, while the amazing (and eerily similar) Okami struggles to move 500k across the best selling consoles of all time? Brand name.

Of course, if you don't have the quality to back up the name, sales will dwindle over time. This is the case with Sonic, but it took a few bad games for sales to get as low as they are now. If the next Super Mario sucked, it would still sell at least two million.

Of course, Sony's titlesgenerally don't cater to as wid ean audience as Nintendo's, either.  God of War is an excellent example of this.  The first God of War only managed to sell 3.21 million units last gen, but it was the best selling linear hack n' slash game across all platforms by a good margin.  The genre just isn't that big, so despite the qulity of the title, it never really achieved blackbuster level sales.

Pokemon....

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=pokemon

Mario......

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=mario

Mario is a carbon copy of Jump man in the original DK(still a Nin Franchise, but Mario is not original)

I agree with the red, but your other statement needs to be re evaluated or rephrased.

Sony never needed games like Nintendo, beside this Gen, they relied mostly on third party developers which they got most of their top games.

But look at this Gen, Sony has no choice but to rely on their first party offering. I think losing this Generation will make them appreciate their own games a little more.

Mario may not be unique, the mushroom kindom sure as hell is. warping through pipes, kicking turtles, goobas, unique art style, flying bullets with faces, big venus fly traps, yoshi,a buddie who is a talking mushroom man, etc. mario is so unique that he has to this day never been trumped. Compare that to say Killzone 2 or Uncharted. Sony's "big" system sellers. yawn

Let's examine this....
Top 8 Wii games:
Wii Sports
Wii Play
Wii Fit
Mario Kart Wii
Super Smash Bros Brawl (Mario included)
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario & Sonic
Mario Party 8

Notice anything? These games aren't necessarily selling because they are great, spectacular, mind blowing games. They are selling because the Wii has a large install base, and they are Wii/Mario games.

How can you expect the PS3 with half the install base and no Wii/Mario games to sell as much software.

Take a look at ps3/X360 and see how many great games there is to choose from.

Now look at Wii and there's like 10 games and more than half of them start with Mario... or Wii ...

like most people are saying Nintendo just has more experience when it comes to developing games first hand. I mean, it would be difficult to try and create a character more popular than Mario :)