Out of the big three, how would your rank them by first party talent?

Number 1 for me would be Sony. Guerilla Games, Insomniac, Santa Monica Studio, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Polyphony Digital, Housemarque, Media Molecule, Bend Studio, San Diego Studio. Yea Sony could use some variety that's for sure, but these developers make really high quality games, and in many cases, at the top of their genre. Sony can make games that are as stunning as they are fun to play.

A close number 2 is Nintendo. At Nintendo's best, they can make masterpieces, particularly with Zelda and Mario. Outside of that, they make fun games, but many of them hardly get mentioned years later.

Number 3 is obviously Xbox. They've made improvements by acquiring more companies, but many of these companies haven't been on their A game for awhile. Bethesda made amazing, yet buggy RPGs, over 10 years ago. Then they sold out and made Fallout 76 and some mobile game. COD has been in the upper 70s/low 80s metacritic for years now. So they have their work to do.

How about you, SW? Out of the big three, how would your rank them by first party talent?

Tough call for me between Nintendo and Microsoft for 1 and 2, could probably go either way. I guess I’ll go with Nintendo and give them the edge here. Microsoft at number two. Sony bringing up the rear at number 3.

Nintendo > Sony > MS as it has always been. But that might change now with recent developments.

I think nobody beats Nintendo when their top teams produce a game ... after that, i would say Sony and on a third, MS.

Before this past year it was Nintendo clearly at the top.

But now it is definitely Microsoft with Bethesda Game Studios and Obsidian added to their 1st party studio list. Also played my first FH game and welcome more from that team.

"They've made improvements by acquiring more companies, but many of these companies haven't been on their A game for awhile."

Xbox Studios cleared house in the last quarter of 2021.

FH5

Halo: Infinite

Psychonauts 2

Deathloop

Age of Empires IV

All three have Strong talent,I’d go with Nintendo first,Microsoft second and then Sony.

I agree with this.

@SolidGame_basic: Really...

What Sony's first party does, it does really well. But, how is Sony 1st party with RPGs and FPSs? Crap? I thought so.

Nintendo (because no one is better)> Microsoft (variety) > Sony.

* Grabs popcorn *

Nintendo first

I can't rate the other trash

I'd agree with that. Sony's fantastic with 3rd person cinematic adventures.

But Nintendo and MS have more variety. And the cows precious Polyphony Digital and Gran Turismo has been struggling against Forza Motorsport in terms of quality since FM1.

@SolidGame_basic: #1 would be nintendo obviously. Do you ever see them releasing a turd half baked game? Or buggy games? Bugs in their game are much rarer than for other studios. They are best in the industry. @mesome posts that Horizon vs botw video and you can see how much details nintendo went into. The girl in Horizon, Aloy is jumping up in the water and doesn't make a splash. Or her fire arrow burning for the same amount of time on water and land. These minor details are things nintendo pays attention to and you just take for granted as being there. But obviously it takes an incredible amount of talent and QA to pull it off without having patch after patch after patch.

Nintendo, Rockstar, and a few Sony studios are all top notch. I had a bit of respect for 343 but their half ass halo release was a let down. And then forza5 which has had crashes and bugs galore. Thankfully they're on top of the patches.

And I'm an xbox fan saying this, is not a good look

uh.. did you see Pokemon Arceus? looks like a game from 2011

Instantly knew how the original post would go when I saw the TC.

@SolidGame_basic: to me, talent of developer is about game quality, being bug free, detailed and full featured. In that case, nintendo is top of the top. If you're talking about graphics lol Halo >> ps5.

No I didn't see arceus yet. But why judge a game on graphics when it's using 2007 hardware. Doesn't make sense

lol you objectively make false claims and I'm pretty sure you know you're wrong. Halo is not known for its graphics at all.

None of them.🤷‍♂️

@SolidGame_basic: I don't get why people think I'm joking. The level of details in halo, the open world nature, the textures, the effects they're all amazing. It would have been even better if 343 didn't have to split their time across 4 different consoles to optimize it. That's the only reason I cut 343 slack for releasing halo in pieces.

Nintendo is number 1. The others are meh at best right now

I used to say Sony, but I'm somehow finding them to enter more best B-rate movies of the year conversations more than best game of the year discussions.

Nintendo then Microsoft.

I'd say Nintendo. In the past I'd give Sony a close second and very strong lead over MS, but they've been awfully one-note in recent years, as much as I enjoy a cinematic 3rd person adventure. I think we have to see how both Sony and MS's acquisitions shake out to recalibrate on the strength of their 1st party. Might still heavily favor Sony in the end, but variety is the spice of life and I think they are aware of this and want to improve on their current blind spots (see e.g., the bungie acquisition)

Sony and Nintendo are at the top of the industry. MS is not comparable to them, it is below EA.

Depends

Technology: Sony (For Gaming) > MS > Nintendo
Game Design: Nintendo > MS > Sony

MS does one thing well, but they tend to do it really well. That is multiplayer games. Lately they did acquire a lot of studios so they might flesh out their lacking single player department. But their multiplayer games remain some of the most competitive games you can get on a console. Aside from fighting games that is. Mechanically speaking, Halo Reach is one of the most interesting shooters I have played in a while. The lack of content and delays however holds that game back a lot.

Sony games tend to be forgotten about pretty fast, they are very much blockbusters and dont really have legs. There are exceptions to this such as God of War: Norse Edition. They also tend to be overly cinematic games, with not a lot of substance to them. While Nintendo games remain competitive in the single player scene in the form of speed runs, and MS games tend to remain competitive in the PvP multiplayer scene, Sony games are just... there not really enough depth. But again there are exceptions in the form of Gran Turismo here, to be fair.

Nintendo games tend to stay relevant a long time. With Mario Kart 8 still being relevant even 7-8 years after it released. Their games are middling in competitive relevancy as far as PvP goes, but Smash remains even to this day a very compelling brawler, while Pokemon is arguably the only RPG I can think of with a competitive scene (unless you consider MOBAs to be RPGs). They are definately held back here by Netcode, which hampers their ability to have strong competitive scenes in today's online play market. But that doesnt mean they arent competitive. Nintendo games are very popular among speedrunners.

And yes, overall, I would say MS has better tech than Sony, just not in the gaming world. DirectX remains an extremely powerful tool for 3d graphics.

Nintendo >

1. Nintendo

2. Sony

3. Microsoft

With just Bethesda alone Microsoft is the best

By actual talent assembled? Microsoft now, they have like 30 studios or some shit all capable with the manpower to make a quality title with the right management.

Execution n offerings, they are a distant ass third place. And I mean a distant ass third place until they prove otherwise.

Nintendo certainly has the direction I like, more gameplay, less shitty video game stories. But, they are always going to cap their games in terms of depth, given their video game Disney status. Sony is gonna make a lot of mediocre games taht get celebrated as better than they are because they look pretty, but in between they will make a game like Dad of War or Last of Us 2, that gets lumped in with the rest of their shitty games, even tho they are actually pretty good. Still overrated relatively speaking, but that's par for the course.

So you, who is the better first party, that's still a convo between Sony and Nintendo. Which first party roster is more talented? Its the 3 publishers worth fleet Microsoft currently has assembled. I wouldn't hold my breath on them to deliver with that roster of studios tho.

No poll?

TC knows Sony's wouldn't win,bless.

Anyhow,based in GAMES I want to play Xbox studios have me covered with their line up,I don't own a switch so meh and Sony haven't got much announced after cartoon farcry west hack and slash,walking in a straight line,through the same looking graphical world god of war 5

Sony has Guerrilla, which is just gonna destroy everyone next week

Microsoft had Ensemble, they closed them down, not sure why and not sure I'm gonna bother looking up what other first party they have.

Nintendo has Retro which is making... uhm

They have Intelligent systems which is working on ... uhm

1. Sony

2. Nintendo

3. Microsoft

Funny, you slam Sony for not having RPGs and FPS but then claim "no one is better" than Nintendo... where are Nintendo's FPS? Most Nintendo RPGs are made by 2nd and 3rd party, same as Sony's. Why would they focus their 1st party studios into making genres their 2nd and 3rd parties provide them?

Nintendo first. They're great.

Microsoft second. They're ok.

Sony third. They're terrible. Not sure who would put them in the top, but you'd have to have a serious lack of a soul.

Microsoft by far. its not even a contest.

Sony is worst of all. they only do one genre ie third person movie games.

@Archangel3371: I agree.

1. Nintendo

2. Microsoft

3. Sony

MS by a light-year or three.

Lagging way back in a distant galaxy far, far away comes..

Nintendont

Phony. :P

@vatususreturns: Nintendo competes on its own level - their games are new releases of beloved franchises going back over 40 years.

That's why.

Sony's first party really only started getting wide attention on PS4 despite them having some good games on PS1/PS2/PS3. I would argue third party publishers were really the most popular during the PS360 and Wii era and Gamecube/Wii/PS2 era.

Talent:

1) Sony
2) Nintendo

Money:

1) Microsoft

Nintendo gets my top spot. They have some of my favorite games and franchises of all time.

MS gets my #2 spot. They have grown their first party a lot and the diversity is stellar.

Sony gets my #3 spot. Back in the PS1 and PS2 days, they had a lot of variety with their first party. Now it seems like they are basically only making 3rd person action games which focus on a cinematic experience. Still some great games, but I feel they have gone kinda stagnant with their offerings. I would like them to bring back some of the older franchises and go back to having more diversity. Sony developers are amazing at getting the most out of the hardware though.

Sony 10/10. Best first party of the whole gaming industry. There's a reason why Sony is stealing GOTY almost every year.

MS 7/10. Much better than it was a few years ago, but they're still unable to create a good Halo game.

Nintendo 5/10. This company doesn't release anything but 5-20 years old rehashes/ports/emulators. A disgusting situation we're in.

@SolidGame_basic: I give Nintendo first spot. Mainly because of Zelda and Mario. Basically recreating the same game into masterpieces over and over is the sign of near perfect talent

Sony is two, MS three. But with the new slew of studios MS could move closer.

Al lmao at GOTY awards meaning a fucking thing.

What do you mean? Sony also bought most of their talent too, literally, they just started way back.

What, you think mother Sony gave birth to them?

Active studios and when they were bought:

Bend 2000

Bluepoint 2021

Firesprite 2021

Guerilla Games 2005

Housemarque 2021

Insomniac Games 2019

Media Molecule 2010

Naughty Dog 2001

Sucker Punch Productions 2011

Valkyrie Entertainment 2021

These are Playstations most important first party studios outside of Polyphony Digital.

Studios they bought and closed:

Bigbig Studios 2007

Evolution Studios 2007

Incognito Entertainment 2002

Studio Liverpool 1993

Zipper interactive 2006

Nintendo is clearly number 1. I don't think that's up for debate.

Microsoft is next, after their recent acquisitions. They released some excellent titles over the past year.

Then....Sony in last place. Their first party output is very slow, and they typically repackage the same B-tier franchises with minimal evolution.

IMO Very obvious Nintendo make the best game, and like, not even close.

I am a huge Xbox fan and have owned all since they launched. Grew up on Nintendo....but if I had to choose one.....my nod goes to Sony. I didn't like them or buy their consoles until the PS3 and I only bought that for the BR player at the time since it was cheaper or the same cost as a stand alone. Looking back at the tail end of the 7th gen and throughout the 8th gen, my fav console games have been Sony.

1. Nintendo

<insert massive gap>

2. MS/Sony (I prefer MS 1st party games, but both are about the same for quality offerings in my view)