I tend to struggle a little bit with analysts, especially ones whose opinion counts towards something and can move stock prices up or down, yet manage to strike out more often than not. In fact, it doesn’t take much to be an analyst other than guessing. At best, analysts have inside sources and great knowledge of the industry, the company they’re reporting on, and consumer trends. When those three factors are meshed together, you’re at least given a glimpse as to what may be. At worst, it’s wishful thinking or purely misguided viewpoints of a company that they have actual little understanding of (i.e. most Apple pundits and analysts).

Sony is of course no stranger to this trend and tends to take its share of beatings from pundits, especially those around the PS3 era. Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor at GamesIndustry.biz:

 It’s not a good sign for your new console when it just launched and people are already wondering how long they have to wait for the next one. The PlayStation 3 hadn’t even been on shelves for a month before the PlayStation 4 started grabbing headlines. After a shake-up to Sony’s executive ranks that saw Kaz Hirai replace Ken Kutaragi as the president of Sony Computer Entertainment International, Nomura analyst Yuta Sakurai read greater meaning into the news, saying, “The appointment of Hirai could be the start of a shift from hardware to software,” adding, “I cannot now imagine a PlayStation 4.” 

If that last sentence isn’t comedy today, I don’t know what is because quite literally the exact opposite took place. As for how my own future predictions go, I see a world where PlayStation is no longer hardware and becomes purely a digital service like Netflix. Share in the comments if you’ve got any good Sony predictions.