Take-Two: Retail "remains a challenge"

The retail environment is still a challenging place for the videogames business, even though some of the world's major economies are showing signs of recovery from recession, and it's too early yet to predict if consumers will buy in force this Christmas.

Those are the thoughts of Take-Two CEO Ben Feder, speaking in the BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference yesterday - but he does believe that there's plenty of room, and demand, for hit titles.

"The retail environment remains challenging; retailers continue to be cautious with their spending and inventory builds," he explained. "That said, for hit titles - and we've seen a few already this Holiday season, there's plenty of room for inventory and plenty of appetite.

"We get asked a lot about consumers, and if they're going to show up this Christmas - I think it's too early from our perspective. We wouldn't be surprised if many consumers waited until the last minute.

"Our own view is that there'll be fewer bargains at the end of the Holiday season, only because retailers have been tight with inventory - and we expect that our catalogue will continue to provide predictability and visibility into our business."

He added that the company expected the price cuts for the next generation consoles in the US to "help the industry grow and expand our audience" ahead of next calendar year, which "will bring a great line-up and we're excited about it," he added, citing the four big launches of Bioshock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption.

Most recently, Take-Two released Borderlands last month, along with the latest DLC content for Grand Theft Auto IV - The Ballad of Gay Tony - this month.