True. Investment in first-party studios is critical to create "great" games. Most often, these are the games that push the boundaries and will be remembered, IMO.
Journey(PS3) for example came out of thatgamecompany, an awesome game studio that benefited from Sony's Santa Monica incubator.
First party games are still the "killer apps" of game consoles, although they aren't the only ones (yup, I believe ecosystems are importants, too). Nintendo is sitting on gold mine with the Wii U's MiiVerse, a twitter-like social network, but with drawings added (of course of limited size, only black and white). But it might be "just another app" if they don't invest in it.
First party games are still the "killer apps" of game consoles, although they aren't the only ones (yup, I believe ecosystems are importants, too). Nintendo is sitting on gold mine with the Wii U's MiiVerse, a twitter-like social network, but with drawings added (of course of limited size, only black and white). But it might be "just another app" if they don't invest in it.