Video game sales strong this year

And outlook for 2009 looking good

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14 November 2008 10:57 GMT / By Katie Scott

Despite concerns over the economy, it seems we haven't stopped buying video games. In fact, perhaps we're all trying to go out less and therefore playing more.

Industry execs told journos at the BMO Capital Markets interactive entertainment conference in New York, that they are optimistic about the future.

And they pointed to the solid sales of consoles from the likes of Sony, Microsoft and of course Nintendo.

"I think it's going to hold up a lot better than other industries", said Mindy Mount, chief financial officer of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division. "We remain cautiously optimistic."

The Nintendo Wii is still selling strong, and, said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, sales of the DS have risen almost 20% year on year.

"If I look at this from an industry perspective I think cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate", Fils-Aime told Reuters in an interview. "If I look at it from a Nintendo perspective, I would say very optimistic."

And games are selling well too.

Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft Entertainment said: "In general, there's a lot of competition (from other publishers), but we see that software is selling well, just due to the fact there are a lot of machine owners who need software".

North American and European software sales could grow by more than 20% this year, he added, continuing that 2009 "will also be a great year".

Strauss Zelnick, executive chairman of Take-Two isn't as optimistic: "I'm concerned that it's going to be a pretty rough holiday season", he said. "Everyone's going to be shopping less. First you are going to see less foot traffic and then less inventory on the shelves."