Who to believe? Financial analysts or company CEOs? The first lot have the unenviable reputation as soothsayers. The latter always have to be upbeat.

Last week, EA CEO John Riccitiello told his staff, ""Trend lines for the industry present a challenge, but our strategy and execution give me confidence...".

This week, US price analyst company, Piper Jaffray, tells its clients, "In our view, company management teams remain overly optimistic about sector prospects and we caution investors that no growth exists during the next 3-yr period. Game software and hardware purchases remain expensive and risk to discretionary spending is decidedly on the downside."

It then cut Electronic Arts' expected share price from $23 to $20. Of course, it's an analyst company so it also inserted the line, "We do not currently rate this non-dividend paying stock, but we do follow the company closely."

^{Via NASDAQ}