Oh, you analysts. Always trying to sway us simple peasants with your big words and fancy statistics. Some of you even take the effort to put forward legitimate evidence for your outrageous claims, but for the most part, we could replace the majority of you with intelligent 10 year olds. Of course, that isn’t to say you don’t have your uses.
Aside from the hilarity that ensues each time one of you decides to present your bizzare animadversions, the main reason we put up with you is because every single time an analyst steps up and makes claims like these, it allows us gamers to make peace with each other, and turn on you instead. That isn’t to say ALL analysts are adept at spewing mind-numbing garbage that causes the entire internet to go “LOL”. Some are simply happy with overstating the obvious. Take, for example, Colin Sebastian, and these excerpts from his interactive entertainment notes posted by Gamasutra:
“Excitement surrounding the hardware launches backed by significant marketing budgets from Microsoft (Xbox 360), Sony (PS3 and PSP) and Nintendo (Wii and DS) – should benefit overall industry trends through the holiday.”
“Our channel checks with retailers indicate that there is strong interest in both the PS3 and Wii; most stores sold out of pre-orders quickly.”
“We expect Sony to deliver 150-200k units to stores in the United States for the launch; consumers without pre-orders may find it difficult to locate an available system. We estimate sales of approximately 750k PS3s domestically by year-end. We expect a more robust launch from Nintendo, with at least 1.2 million units sold in the U.S. and up to four million units shipped worldwide by year-end.”
“We expect less than 15% of software sales to come from the PS3 and Wii this holiday; the more numerous Xbox 360, PS2 and handheld platforms (DS and PSP) remain key drivers of growth,” though, he predicts, “this fifth major platform transition is likely to be the largest product launch in the industry’s history.”
No sh*t, Sherlock. How much do we owe you for looking up forum posts and repeating what we’ve only been hearing all year long?
