Sharp: Economy not affecting sales

Talk of an economic slowdown, whether real or imaginary, is having no effect on sales of LCD TVs, according to Sharp's product manager for those items.

Talking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz Tommaso Monetto admitted that such pressures might impact market performance further down the line, but stressed that at this point he was only seeing the opposite: "When you look at week-by-week sales, it's actually growing, very clearly."

"Well, clearly everybody's starting to worry about the economy, about a slow-down, according to the newspapers on a daily basis.

"To a certain degree, the price erosion within the LCD business is so high that last year the average end users could probably only afford to buy at best a 32 inch LCD TV. Today we're looking at roughly the same price for a 42 inch.

"Maybe further down the line we will have to look at how the economy goes, but for the moment, when we look at the data that comes through on a monthly basis, certainly we're not seeing anywhere a decrease in sales - in fact the opposite.

"When you look at week-by-week sales, it's actually growing, very clearly."

Luxury consumer goods, such as electronic entertainment devices - including LCD TVs and videogames consoles - are often the first casualties of consumer belt-tightening, and so signs appear to be positive for the games industry for the time being.

The full interview with Tommaso Monetto is available now.