Company bosses eye cautious growth in 2009

As reported by Reuters, a slew of games industry heads said at the BMO Capital Markets interactive entertainment conference in New York yesterday that they remain optimistic about sales this Christmas and are expecting general growth again next year.

"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."

"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," said Ubi boss Yves Guillemot.

Guillemot said he still expects 2008 North American and European video game industry software sales to grow by more than 20 percent, and added that 2009 "will also be a great year."

Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime had more bluster.

"If I look at this from an industry perspective I think cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate," he said. "If I look at it from a Nintendo perspective, I would say very optimistic."

EA sports head Peter Moore sounded a little more realistic.

"We are entering uncharted water from an economic standpoint," he said. "We are holding our breath and hoping the consumer comes out to play."

More through there.