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.

With the official launches of the PS3 and Wii this month, the holiday gift-buying season for the video games industry has begun. We asked several analysts, those who have taken part in this column throughout the year as well as new contributors, to give a general rundown on how the race among the big three game companies will play out. This will be the first holiday retail season in which all three next-generation consoles will be on the market (albeit one of them - the PS3 - in very limited quantities).

Each person's opinion is his or her own and will (probably) not necessarily agree with their fellow colleagues'. This month, NPD's Anita Frazier, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies, David Mercer of Strategy Analytics, Lazard Capital Market's Colin Sebastian, and Screen Digest's Ed Barton discuss their views on the coming holiday gift-buying season.