Those sneaky 'Market Analysts' have been analysing the market again! What say they?

The Informa Media Group predicts that the N5 will struggle to keep up with the rival consoles in terms of sales.

Sony's Playstation 3 is predicted to shift a whopping 32 million units by the year 2010, which is more than double the combined prediction of sales for N5 and Xenon; predicted at 5 million and 10 million sales respectively.

The Informa Media Group claim that the next six years of sales will look like this in terms of combined console sales;

• 2005: 1.3 million
• 2006: 11m
• 2007: 22.1m
• 2008: 33.6m
• 2009: 41.9m
• 2010: 47.2m

The report suggests that the success of the next generation consoles may well be dependant on the Internet gaming side of things, an area which Nintendo is reputedly not greatly interested in, although I do remember that one of Tony Blair's aims in office is to get the whole country on broadband by 2006 at the latest, so surely the potential online gaming market is huge? Still, Nintendo have surprised us in the past (Wind Waker cel shaded?Metroid first person?) and I am sure that they may well surprise us in the years to come.

Also the report predicts that the current generation of consoles will most likely still be on sale until 2010 -- how's that for lifespan eh?

But do not despair! This is only one analysts' views, and it only takes into account the current market trends -- trends which include Nintendo's passive marketing ploys and the casual gamers distinct lack of gaming knowledge when it comes to choosing what to buy, and if you ask me i reckon gamers will get at least a little better at spotting a good game, and Nintendo should be learning from their mistakes so we genuinely don't know what will happen in the next episode of Console Wars... But I promise that when we do know, Cube-Europe will be here to report! Woo!