I have not had time to sink my teeth into all the new console announcements, but I find it interesting that predictions are rolling out the door:

“In 2004, Sony’s older PlayStation 2 led the U.S. console wars with 43 percent of the market, according to Jupiter Research. The original Xbox was a distant No. 2 with 19 percent, followed by Nintendo’s GameCube at 14 percent. The remainder included handheld game systems.

But by 2010, Xbox 360 would grab the lead with 38 percent of the market, followed by Sony with 32 percent and Nintendo with 22 percent, Jupiter forecasts.”

I am not sure how Jupiter Research came to this conclusion, but it is interesting to see a prediction that Sony will lose 11% percent of the market, Microsoft will gain 19% of the market, and somehow Nintendo will even gain another 8% market share.

Microsoft certainly has a chance to gain market share with their new system, but I wonder how companies such as Jupiter Research make these sort of forecasts, and more importantly to us gamers, how often are these predictions on the mark?