They are the professional analysts whose job it is to research, keep track of, advise their clients, and opine to the media about the gaming business. Analyze This cuts right to the chase: Rather than reporting on a subject, and throwing in quotes by analysts to support or refute a point, Gamasutra offers up a timely question pertaining to the business side of the video game industry and simply lets the analysts offer their thoughts directly to you. Each person's opinion is his own and will (probably) not necessarily agree with their fellow colleagues'.

The Nintendo DS is approaching 50 million units sold worldwide, and the Wii is about to soon match the sales number of the Xbox 360 (approximately 10 million worldwide). The early hype for the current generation of consoles originally focused on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and, thus, most publishers banked their game development futures on these two platforms. But now business plans of the major third-parties are shifting towards the Nintendo consoles.

We asked Nick Williams of GamerMetrics, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, and Billy Pidgeon of IDC:

Do you think game publishers underestimated the appeal of the Nintendo DS and Wii, and put too much faith on the PS3 and Xbox 360?

Which publishers have capitalized on the rise of the Wii and DS best? Which have fared worst?

Do you have advice for other publishers looking to make money off of the Wii and DS?