Microsoft is definitely a very happy company in terms of gaming these days. It has seen an almost trouble-free launch of the New Xbox Experience, it has the upper hand in what concerns sales and units moved as opposed to its main rival, the PlayStation 3, and it has seen a lot of Xbox 360 units sold during last week's Black Friday price cuts.

But, although the news is nothing short of great for the North American company, it seems that its vice president of strategy and business development for the videogame business, Shane Kim, isn't so happy in regard to next year in terms of sales. Without a doubt, the economy crisis will affect regular gamers, and Kim says that his company is "cautiously optimistic" about the sales it will manage in 2009.

The executive points out that, although analysts said, at the beginning of this year, that the market would grow by 20%, which came true, for next year, predictions aren't so good, and companies need to be prepared for that. He also mentions that, although the economy will make people more careful about what they spend their money on, history has proved that the gaming industry will come out relatively unharmed, as it offers the best entertainment for the smallest amount of money.

"While they may cut back on large purchases like automobiles or appliances, they're still looking for entertainment," says Kim. He then further predicts that, because times will get harder, a flat performance in what regards sales and profits might become something quite admirable for some companies. It will definitely be up to the large gaming corporations, be they publishers or producers, to make their products more attractive and balanced in terms of price.

Although this financial crisis is becoming more and more menacing, it's quite nice to hear that the big gaming companies are already planning their next moves and aren't really worried. Blizzard, one of the largest game developers out there, has also said that the industry will begin to be dominated by games, because of the high rate of entertainment offered in return to a moderate amount of money. Let's just hope that 2009 will be a good year for games.