Oh economy, quit being such a wet blanket. You don't see video game publishers crying as they dip into their retirement accounts, do you? No sir. At least not according to Reuters, which reports the industry expects strong game sales through the remainder of this year and into 2009 in spite of the frowny faces on Wall Street.

Industry execs painted a mostly rosy outlook during yesterday's BMO Capital financial conference in New York. Overall, Microsoft exec Mindy Mount stated that she feels the game industry will "hold up a lot better than other industries," while Take Two's Strauss Zelnick admitted that such prosperity will likely only come to those companies with big titles under the tree.

Some, such as EA's Peter Moore, came away speaking words of "cautious optimism" in the face of the economic uncertainty, sentiment echoed by Nintendo's always vocal Reggie Fils-Aime. Though like a motion sensitive King Midas with a gold-encrusted stylus in one hand and a bag of money in the other, he told Reuters that while "cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate" overall, from Nintendo's ivory tower, the view is "very optimistic."