Microsoft or Sony: which has stronger first party franchises?

Is this a joke thread? The answer is obvious for anyone who's been on SW for many years already knows the answer lol.

Sony's stable is more impressive than MS's stable.

A month ago this wouldn't have been close but Microsoft just added DOOM, Fallout, Dishonored and TES to their portfolio. At the moment, these games still feel like multiplats (because they are) but when they end up not coming out on PS, I think people will really start feeling the sting.

Halo, Gears, TES, Dishonored, Fallout, DOOM, Forza, Age of Empires, Halo Wars, Gears Tactics, Ori, Fable

vs

TLOU, Uncharted, R&C, Horizon, GOT, inFAMOUS, God of War, Demon's Souls (does that count as a franchise?), Bloodborne

Note: I didn't include games like Killzone or Resistance because they've added too little presence for too long and nothing seems to be on the horizon for them.

Shockingly, I'll give this one to Microsoft with a tiny edge. DOOM for me is huge and although TES and Fallout are garbage games in their vanilla state, they can become pretty addictive when modded.

How is it obvious? TES outsells every PS franchise. Fallout and DOOM can go toe to toe with any of them in terms of popularity and critical praise. Those three franchises alone would make the top 10 if they belonged to Sony.

What's obvious? A month ago this question would have been borderline stupid but MS' first party lineup is much stronger now that they own Zenimax. So I figure it's an interesting question now.

@Juub1990: We literally posted the same thing at the same time lol :P

Even including the recent purchase by Microsoft, Sony still wins.

nintendo..mario

xbox..halo.gears..fable..fallout..elder scrolls

ps.... sales

HaH

Prior to the recent Bethesda purchase I probably would have said Sony but since that has happened I now say Microsoft.

@Juub1990: TES6 isn't known to be exclusive. Also with one of its biggest platforms gone, TES6 won't sell as well as Skyrim. It's been 10 years since Skyrim btw.... I know you guys aren't used to having exclusives to list but calm down. The chickens haven't hatched yet. Maybe you also didn't know that Skyrim hasn't even sold 10 million across 360 and Xbox One. TLOU 1 alone outsold that.

What are the chances TES VI come out on PS? Rather unlikely if Microsoft wants to push their services. Certainly not impossible but I wouldn't bet on it.

Skyrim sold 13.7M on Xbox 360 according to Statistic Brain.

Sony destroys MS and it isn't even close. The Xbox fanboys bringing up studios full of multiplat games lol

TES and Fallout are also not very good any more. At all. I think it's a big wait-and-see on whether they are "strong" next round.

MS is home to Fallout 76. 'Nuff said.

If we are looking at now Sony without a doubt. If we are looking at the future, well, 😎

Sony’s first party reached another level with the PS4 — they’ve come a really long way, and easily made some of the best games of the generation. I hope Microsoft’s newer acquisitions leads them to creating really great first party content going forward, only time will tell.

btw, the question is for first party franchises (regardless of exclusivity).

i.e. which company owns stronger franchises (not stronger exclusives) in the industry right now?

stronger = more popular / successful / sought after

Juub, I played Skyrim to death since its launch with over 100 mods and the TES to me is losing its steam if you ask me but than again, Bethesda keeps milking Skyrim for all its worth. MS buying Bethesda, I'll wait and see how this all plays out for MS.

Sounds like you are saying Skyrim is losing its steam not TES.

Skyrim isn't the whole franchise. TES VI if it doesn't come out on PS5 will be a huge deal.

Wait, what? The last main Fallout game was released 4 years ago and was well-received (though I think it sucks.) and the last main TES game is almost a decade old. Fallout 76 and ESO are not at all representative of these franchises.

MS pulls ahead now, it's 1p studio output will be more varied and has strong IP in each category. Sony 1p is still limited and needs to expand. Need more studios to follow what Guerilla did and go outside the wheel house to try something new.

In term of franchise its obvious Microsoft right now has so many strong franchises compared to Sony. Sony though personally has better studios and better environment to vreate new IP.

From what I have seen, Sony.

Sony and its not even close.

Also I still doubt that MS paid 7.5 billion for a studio and is going to keep them exclusive, they paid 4 billion for Minecraft and its stayed multiplat. I know MS fanboys/trolls like to dream that they (MS) doesnt care about profits and can spend spend spend and not get anything in return, but the reality is that's not the case, they're in it to make money and spending that much to dwindle the sales of those franchises isn't in that best interest.

I'll say Sony, because I don't know how Microsoft is gonna handle putting out Bethesda games.

@Juub1990: Skyrim is a pretty terrible rpg. And FO4 is mediocre. I guess the answer depends on the purpose of the topic - if the topic is "sells the most" or "critics give them 8s" then yes, MS is probably in front now. But as a gamer and former fan of both series you won't see me calling either a strong ip any more unless they prove me otherwise

You are living in denial if you think all Bethesda's future games are going to be specifically on the PS5. Microsoft is going to leverage the fact that their games are accessible via Gamepass streaming and PC. I also recall the argument that that PS4 gamers prefer to game on PC every time a Xbox console exclusive is mentioned, so there is no loss to MS. 😎

The one that has 2 souls games.

I won't go as far as to say that Skyrim is terrible, but it was a buggy mess. So was Fallout 3. And I believe Fallout 4 had issues too. Instead of focusing on quality RPGs, they decided to turn to mobile and microtransaction crap. That's why I'm really not that hyped at all for Elder Scrolls 6 or Starfield.

I agree. To me the vanilla version of these games is pretty shit but people love them. They sell 10's of millions and score 85+ pretty consistently so I have no choice but to include them in the top lists. Not very different from people who hate Uncharted or TLOU2 because they consider them story-driven movie-games with mediocre gameplay.

That's pretty much how I understood it, Bethesda games may or may not be exclusives but they are still MS's first-party.

@SolidGame_basic: yeah it's not that it's a "terrible experience" - it's a decent sandbox with a cool setting to dick around in. It's that (IMO) it's a terrible roleplaying game and the worst modern entry in the series. I know it's popular AF, but I'm ok being in the minority. Like I said, I think these games count a lot towards the bankroll, but it has been over a decade since I would have said they counted towards a strong first party lineup in a "it's a genuinely good game" sense.

IMO the better scores from this acquisition are Arkane and id games

@Pedro: I haven't pay that much to Bethesda but is there a demand for TES6?

It's not that Skyrim is terrible and I do admit, I enjoy it much more but its overstayed its welcome and Bethesda keeps milking it to its roots is the problem. Fallout 4 had its moments but yeah, it was mediocre at best, it was the sign that Bethesda can't make fun games any more. And this is why I'm not jumping for joy over at MS buying Bethesda until I see the final results.

Edit: As for the rest of the thread, Sony still has an edge on the exclusives at this time and until MS comes out strong, its Sony for now.

@davillain-: my favorite part about Skyrim and FO4 were their settings. Love that dirty water

It was the highest trending game to come out of that E3 it was revealed at and all they showed was some landscape and a title. Definitely still a big demand.

Currently Sony has the better first party, in a couple years that could change.

@fedor: Is that so? TES as a series still has life it in lol. But I do remembering reading that Bethesda is trying to get Starfield out of the way first before they do anything else. Starfield is one of those Bethesda games I'm actually interest the most.

@fedor: Heck there's hype for Starfield and nothing at all has been shown!

As it currently stands, Sony has a more stable base of 1st-party games. I view Microsoft to be a work in progress, so we'll have to wait and see how they shape up in the upcoming years.

Sony is still in the lead but it’s actually a race now and not a massacre like it was before. I’m super excited to see how the competition pushes both sides this gen.

Sony still wins. Bethesda games are trash. The only good Zenimax franchises are Doom and The Evil Within.

You have no proof that future Bethesda games won't be on Playstation lol

The opposite is also true. It's more likely these games DON'T find themselves on Playstation rather than the other way around. Of course, it's not impossible Microsoft continues releasing them on Playstation either.

Microsoft buying a publisher doesn't make their previous offerings better. The answer is Sony. Not even debatable.

They're gonna need all the sales they can get to make back that $7 billion

I voted MS this time. I think MS combined exclusives will outsell Sony now that TES, DOOM, Fallout etc are part of the MS portfolio.

Sony has the strong first party not because of Titels like god of war uncharted or GT but because of there willings to invest in new ips like dreams or ghosts of Tsushima and days gone and one day lets hope Wild comes out on ps5. MS bought Bethesda and we still don’t know what their plan is with the fallout and oblivion and imo they are not systems sellers just like the finale fantasy series. MS still has a lot to prove

Sure, but they'd probably try to use it as a leverage for Game Pass. If they release TES VI on PS5, that's one less big reason to get Game Pass which goes against their strategy. Once again, not saying it's impossible. I just see Microsoft using Bethesda as major sellers for their services.