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'.

We are approaching a year since all three of the current generation consoles have been battling it out in the market. We wanted to hear how the analysts generally feel about what has been going on with the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3... summing up a "progress report" for each console, thus far, as the industry heads into the holiday season.

So we asked Nick Williams of GamerMetrics, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, and David Cole of DFC Intelligence:

The Wii -- it's still damn hard for shoppers to find on store shelves. How do you feel about the way Nintendo has been handling the supply of it? What do you think about its game selection up to this point?

The Xbox 360 has enjoyed success and good publicity with hits like BioShock and Halo 3. But family-friendly titles like Viva Pinata haven't been smash hits, and there remain ongoing quality control issues with units overheating (i.e. the infamous "Red Ring of Death"). Plus, the console is still having a rough go in the Asian market.

Finally, there is the PS3: the system's skeptics have claimed that not much has happened with it this year, in terms of sales or must-have titles, and critics have charged that there does not seem to be much excitement going on with the platform right now. Do you agree or disagree?