Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

All is not doom and gloom for this coming holiday season.  While pundits and prognosticators are predicting less than robust (to put it mildly) retail sales through the rest of the year, one industry, at least, anticipates great holiday sales.
 
Let’s here it for this country’s gamers, who are expected to help the sales of video games remain strong this year and in 2009.  A recent Yahoo! Tech article points out that industry executives said their optimism is fueled by “solid sales of advanced game consoles made by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.”  While this projection, which was made at the BMO Capital Markets interactive entertainment conference in New York, seems to defy common sentiment, we could all use a bit of good news today.
 
So, the next time you run into a video game freak or perhaps just an average 10 year old boy, thank them for shining a bit of a bright spot on the economy.
 
Let’s hope those industry executives are right.

— Laurie Berman, Senior Vice President, lberman@pondel.com