It sucks now that Nintendo is the only real video game company making video games systems now. Sony is primarily a electronics company and Microsoft is primarily a software company.

Now if Sony and Microsoft spun there games segments off into their own companies (eg PlayStation Corp. and Xbox Enterprises Ltd.) there would be a reason for celebration.

A better picture would be for a company like Valve to buy some video game publishing and electronics distribution company and other series of acquisitions that would lead to them putting out a console of their own. Or maybe a company like Mattel acquires a game developing company and then puts out a console. But the game industry is in a state to where we can't ever have more than one video game company making a console.

It seems like I'm making a big deal over nothing here because we've been used to this state of things for more than half a decade now. But it's bad because the mindset of a entertainment or toy company is different from a electronics or software company that just wants to get licensing fees, push out a new format, or lock developers and customers to a software platform. In the end all that comes out in their products.

It's hard to put my finger on it but I don't feel like either Sony or Microsoft are trying hard enough to make their consoles valuable. They've gone after 3^rd parties for the most part and occasionally will put out a game of their own. It's rare that they release a 1^st party game that they expect to people care enough to buy their system. As a result both consoles seem about as diverse as coke and pepsi.

Nintendo on the other hand seems to be relaxing from their huge success. (In much the same way they did after the NES) I have to believe that if they really felt competition they'd be producing more than just 3 more Mario games, 2 more Zelda games and another Metroid game. I've also noticed that some of their sequels end up using much the same content that the last game had.

The real problem here is that the industry itself has deteriorated down to a software platform mindset where nobody wants to sell a complete product, just half of one. (eg. you make the platform I'll make the software) This would be excusable if consoles were commoditized like DVD/CD players but they aren't.

If the industry does get reborn I hope it's without proprietary platforms and instead rely on generic mobile devices and set-top boxes such as a MP3 players and DVR's. In the end I suppose there would still be differentiation like slimmer models and more stylized designs. Just as long as anyone could publish games instead of just people who bought a license and dev kit. I'm getting tired of the same six publishers.

Wow.. you're going to get a lot of people's feathers in a bunch after this thread.

You do realize Sony owns more game studios then Nintendo right now right?

Even if that were the case, what does that have to do with his post?

I love Nintendo. But the Wii is a joke in my opinion.

Nintendo is really only about peripherials (WiiFit, Vitality Sensor, Motion Controls, etc), Mario, Metroid, and Zelda. Nintendo could just as easily shutdown the Wii and release add on periperials to 360 and PS3 and go multi-platform with their games. No one would see the difference and they would gain a lot more sales while being able to focus on their strengths.

alot he is implying sony doens't make games when actually makes more than nintendo and microsoft together.

even if sony it's hardware+software electronic company it's game division it's bigger than nintendo.

Sony has their own gaming division that focuses on videogames.

Same for Microsoft.

They both work towards developing and publishing games, and putting out hardware. Just like Nintendo. And while it may seem like they put out less games, it's only because the games studios of Microsoft and Sony rely more on second party developers. Not a big deal.

Sony fanboys spouting inaccuracies as usual, what do you expect from the VGchartz community?  

Here are the numbers of game franchises that each company owns, per Wikipedia:

Nintendo Franchises, 30 in total, go here to see them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nintendo_franchises

Sony Franchises, 81 in total, go here to see them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment#Software_Development_Studios

Microsoft Franchises, 65 in total, go here to see them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Game_Studios

Now, those are just the number of franchises but I am sure that you are wondering how many games have come out of these franchises.  Well, if  we look at 2008 (2009 is not over yet so we should not use it).

Microsoft has released 19 games in 2008 (from Xbox 360/PC and Xbox Live combined).

Sony has released 42 games in 2008 (from Playstation 2, PSP, Playstation Network and Playstation 3 combined).

Nintendo has released 38 games in 2008 (from Wii, DSi and WiiWare combined).

So, as you can see, Sony does NOT make more games than both Microsoft and Nintendo put together. 

^ But they do make alot of games and take the gaming buisness seriously. Which liquidninja is saying Microsoft and Sony don't do either. I await his reply to the numbers you've have shown us ghaelon1980.

If that's true (because you know Wiki isn't the best source) then that pretty much wraps up this thread. Sony and Microsoft definately try as hard, if not harder than, nintendo to make it in this industry. MS and Sony have gaming divisions devoted to gaming. And Sony has really been pumping out games this gen (well since late 2007/early 2008)