Well, it has been said by some that there actually are some very good video game market analysts out there, they just don't let us plebes see their precious data.
There might not be many of them on gameindustry.biz. I get the feeling a lot of those 'experts' are programmers and the enthusiast press. They probably skew towards the Xbox, don't actually pay much attention to sales beyond NPD's top ten, and are genuinely more excited for Mass Effect 2 than GT5.
I have no doubt that ioi and The Source have the skills they need to make some good money as analysts... If they aren't already.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.