Feature: 'Analyze This: The 2006 Holiday Gift-Buying Season'

In today's Gamasutra feature, we quiz top analysts from NPD, Wedbush Morgan, Creative Strategies, Strategy Analytics, Lazard Capital Market, and Screen Digest on "the race among the big three" console manufacturers this holiday season, including plenty of exclusive insight into who's coming out on top. As the intro explains: "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)." Understandably, the one thing all of the analysts could agree upon is that perhaps the biggest factor affecting all holiday sales this season is the supply chain, with both PS3 and Wii continuing to sell out as quickly as both have been restocked. You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the topic to hear more about how those re-supply issues will affect the sales of handheld and console alternatives, as well as see the analyst's picks for top holiday season software (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).