Microsoft eyes '09 market-beating Xbox sales

Chinese New Year, which takes place in late January 2009, is the peak shopping season for most countries in the greater China region and many retailers in east Asia typically chalk up their best sales during that period. Microsoft has sold about 25 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide since its introduction in late 2005, compared to 14.4 million units for Sony's PlayStation 3 and 30 million of Nintendo's Wii units, which both came out in late 2006.

While video game developers such as Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS.O) have warned recently that their profits and revenue will fall short of already low-forecasts, Bowman said Microsoft would continue to invest in software and game development.

"Game development is the core of what we do," he said. "Microsoft is a software company by heart, and we will continue to work with our partners and by ourselves to develop new software for the market."

Bowman also said there were no concrete cost-cutting measures being implemented to deal with the current economic downturn, but that the company is "constantly evaluating our options".

"Any global company needs to be mindful of their costs and money, but that's a combination of good internal controls and effective cost management," he said.

(Editing by Lincoln Feast)

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