We all know the notorious reputation that Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts both have regarding multi-platform releases, but just how far does the marketing reach of both publishers stretch? According to a report from Screen Digest, both companies will collectively publish 40 percent by the holidays and as much as 75 percent of console releases in the western region from July to September.

While, somebody, somewhere, has to ask all the tough questions, somebody else has to answer them. In this case, it's video game industry analysts Nick Williams, Jesse Divnich and Ed Barton. What were they asked and how did they respond? Find out in the full article, right after the jump.

With Toshiba leaving the HD DVD format, we see the first signs of its effects on the console wars. Analysts agree that with HD DVD format out of the way, PlayStation 3 consoles will get a great boost in sales. Analyst Michael Pachter also gives his take on what's in store for Microsoft with the loss of HD DVD. Details in the full article.

Industry analysts Ed Barton and Jesse Divnich appeared unconcerned about Nintendo's announcement regarding the Wii shortage this holiday season.  According to Barton and Divnich, the supply deficit won't deal too much damage to Nintendo's dominant market position. Furthermore, they noted that the Wii is still outselling its competitors despite the shortage.

Ed Barton and Jesse Divnich also noted that Microsoft and Sony's price drops for their respective consoles won't dislodge Nintendo from its dominant market position either.

The reason, they said, has to do with the difference in the consoles' target demographics. To illustrate their point, Barton and Divnich compared the forty casual titles scheduled for release on the Wii during the fourth quarter of this year, to the five titles each for the Xbox 360 and PS3. According to Barton, this supposedly reflects the belief of third-party publishers that the Wii is the platform for the more casual, less hardcore gamers.

The two analysts also remained skeptical about the claim that the shortage was a result of Nintendo deliberately withholding stock to maintain a public image of desirability. Barton noted that with the intensely competitive nature of this year's holiday season, it's difficult to believe that Nintendo or any of its competitors would resort to such tactics.

Ed Barton also believed the shortage to be a short-term issue, given Nintendo's experience in determining consumer demand and in managing production volumes. Jesse Divnich, on the other hand, speculated that Nintendo might adjust the manufacturing investment in the short term, and suggested that "Nintendo might be willing to take a small hit on profit this season to assure that units are manufactured and shipped quicker to keep up with demand."

 

The very enlightened folks over at Gamasutra notes that David Cole of DFC Intelligence, Ed Barton of Screen Digest, and ABI Research director">Mike Wolf of ABI research, the professional analysts, the people who get paid to talk gaming business are willing to give their two cents regarding the current state of the Sony PlayStation Portable.

David Cole notes his mixed feelings towards the PSP. While he believes that Sony's handheld has proven that there's room in the market for two portable systems, and that there is demand for a more high-end portable platform, he feels that the PSP could use a new model. Cole notes Nintendo's success with that strategy, and cites the GBA SP, and the DS Lite.

Ed Barton, on the other hand believes that the only way the PSP can be seen as anything other than a success is by comparing it with the dominant Nintendo DS. Barton cites forecasts of PSP console and software sales, and an installed base that should be 29 million by the end of 2007. Not as dominant as the DS but definitely NOT a failure. He ads: "If this is 'failing,' then failure just got a huge brand makeover."

As for Mike Wolf, he believes that the prevalent perception that the platform is a "failure" is manly due to the device struggling to live up to Sony's marketing of the product. Which according to him is what the PS3 is going through today. He notes that Sony's swagger, bravado, and "we are the one to beat" attitude is to blame for the PSP's bad reputation.

Wolf also ads that Sony's effort to use the UMD format as an avenue for movie distribution was a really bad move, especially now that the world is trying to move towards digital distribution. UMD: decent for games, bad for movies. The cherry on the PSP bad rep cake according to Wolf is the reliance on Memory Sticks, he believes that although the device would have cost more, if it had a significant amount of flash memory, then the PSP would have been much more successful.

As for generating more excitement for the PSP, suggestions included taking advantage of the PSP-PS3 connection, focusing on community, integration with the Location Free client and Home, distinct console unique games with gameplay that highlights the PSP, less PSP to PS2 ports, more "rethought" games like Ratchet & Clank, and as noted by Ed Barton (something that you folks definitely agree with) "offering users ways to create and share gaming content."

Home *hack, cough* brew.

As for their forecast for the PSP this year and the next, most of them agree that the time is ripe for a new hardware iteration (more memory and battery), some even express that a hardware upgrade is more pertinent than a price cut. They note it would be a good time for Sony to improve on wireless downloadable content for the PSP. Although they're all eager to see a second PSP, Wolf notes that "Sony's too focused on the PS3 right now to deliver a new handheld in the next 18 months."

New information from analysts at Screen Digest today says that only a small amount of next generation console titles will be profitable due to an "increasingly difficult environment" for developers.

This increasingly difficult environment comes from the increasing complexity in games development, and although from the gamers point of view, great next-gen titles such as Gears of War and Call of Duty 3 only come with million dollar investments, it is estimated that investments in next-gen game projects is not likely to make a return on profit before 2008.

To cost cut, developers have been forced to release games on many different platforms and producing games based on popular movies amongst others. This could mean poor quality games in the future, because as true gamers will know, there's nothing worse than a game which has been badly ported to another system.

The big guns, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have tried to circumvent a developer shortage by expanding their own personal game studios, with Sony 2,200 development staff across 14 studios; with all but one of these studios working on PS3 titles. On the subject of the next gen console war, Screen Digest report author Ed Barton said:

While the previous generation was quickly dominated by Sony's PlayStation 2 across all major territories, this time we anticipate a more competitive situation where market share is likely to be split on a territorial basis.

Hopefully the investment of the big three console manufacturers in development teams should enhance next-gen gaming, but as for the independent publishers and studios, it's going to be a bit of a struggle to stay afloat during the following years which will be critical to their survival.

I'll go out on a limb and say that the painful truth right now is that it is very fashionable at the moment to not favor the PS3. Such is the situation that even some PS3 zealots, choose to share the sentiment albeit with a few modifications, to be specific, choosing to focus the hate on the company behind the console and not the PlayStation 3 itself.

But what is this? An entity that actually credibly decries the Wii and foresees the PS3 dominating by 2010 and the Wii being a left at third place?

Get the rest of the story after the Jump.