MS biggest problem with their 1st party is they haven't fostered any sort of culture of just allowing their studios to be creative. Turn 10 is a Forza factory, 343 is a Halo factory, and Coalition is a Gears factory. Before that Liohead was a Fable factory, Bungie a Halo factory etc. They laser lock on individual franchises and don't move on. Nintendo and Sony are both far riskier in what they develop and produce. Sure Nintendo has had mostly the same stable of franchises for a long time now but they do a lot within those franchises. Just look how different each Mario game is, each Zelda, etc. Sony similarly seem to give their teams far more space and room to work with.
The thing is it seems Nintendo and Sony are both willing to eat some bombs in the chance of really hitting on something good. They realize that not everything will be a large success but giving their studios the room to experiment will eventually get the next Last of Us, Breath of the Wild, etc. MS is far more risk averse, while ironically having by far the deepest pocket books of the bunch.
-Nintendo and Sony willing to eat some bombs? First of all, none of them are willing to eat some bombs, as it is equal to losing money and no company wants that by definition. Sony canceled Eight Days and The Getaway 3, some of the infamous examples.
-Not allowing their studios to be creative?
Naughty Dog during the PS1 era worked on Crash Bandicoot/Crash Team racing exclusively. During the PS2 era they worked on Jak exclusively. Since 2007 till now they have released The Last of Us and all the other games have been Uncharted. Has Polyphony Digital done anything other than Gran Turismo for Sony? Since Guerilla Games signed a contract with Sony in 2004, they've released only Killzone games exclusively to PlayStation, only now in 2017 they've diversified. That is 13 years.
Other than Rare, Microsoft doesn't even have a first party studio that is older than the period Naughty Dog worked on Uncharted (6.5 years), let alone the period Guerilla worked on Killzone (11-13 years). 343 Industries' first game released in 2012, which started development in 2009. Prior to that 343 was working on Halo Legends, an anime, and map packs.. The Coalition/Black Tusk is also a brand new studio formed in 2012. I love that people are quick to point out that Microsoft axed Shangheist in favor of Gears, but completely ignore that fact that 2 years after the teaser for Shangheist was shown, they were still looking for game designers for it. It was never in active development.
The point I'm trying to make is that your expectations of what Microsoft 1P should be and do is completely unreasonable. Microsoft's current 1P studios aren't mature enough to assess the diversity of its output. However, the output of Microsoft Studios published games have been diverse this gen: Ryse, Ori, Sunset Overdrive (which could have been released on the PS4 exclusively if Sony didn't demand ownership of the IP), Quantum Break etc.
To not go completely off topic, Microsofts 1P is what excites about gaming in general. Of all the Microsoft 1P games I buy from now on, I own a remastered version automatically though Play Anyways. Years down the road after Scorpio launches I can play the games I already own for Scorpio on a higher resolution and fps on a possible PC I will build. That's exciting for us gamers.
