If anything i would say MSs first party games this gen have had nearly as much impact as sonys. When is this payoff supposed to happen btw? Their only real big franchise GT is in a decline and is nowhere near as strong as it once was. Where is the big seller for sony going to come from?
First party games? Sure, but the issue with Microsoft is they lack first party studios. Most of what Microsoft does is contracted nowadays, at least it seems. That's not a bad strategy but it does have implications if things become difficult down the road.
The quality of the games are irrelevant and i have no idea why people keep bringing that up (it's completely subjective and adds nothing to the discussion). Nintendo has the best selling franchises and judging by their continued sales i'd say people must consider them to be very good.
I didn't talk about quality, I talked about IP strength. A lot of that is built upon legacy, relevance, and market value. Besides, we agreed on the same point. Nintendo drawfs anything Sony could come up with franchise wise. Sony is attempting to build it, whether or not they are successful is a different story
I don't think sony is getting there at all. Personally i don't think they're doing that much better than MS in the west. They certainly aren't making any grounds on nintendos first party which in the last generation became stronger than ever.
Sony need a massive system selling first party IP. The only one they have that fits that bill at all is GT which is declining and takes forever to actually release (and on top of that it is barely relevant on handhelds).
Couldn't say, that's very objective. But how I look at is that Sony has studios they own that can produce software. MS does too but not in the same strength/fashion. But as always, the software lineup is distinctly Western and that has its disadvantages.