The holiday season is almost upon us, and the question is how video games will have fared when we're all cleaning up Santa's cookie crumbs and milk glasses.

Reuters took the opportunity at the recent Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference to find out what some of the top people in our industry think going forward:

"I think it's going to hold up a lot better than other industries. We remain cautiously optimistic." -- Mindy Mount, Microsoft

"If I look at this from an industry perspective I think cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate. If I look at it from a Nintendo perspective, I would say very optimistic." -- Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America

"In general, there's a lot of competition (from other publishers), but we see that software is selling well, just due to the fact there are a lot of machine owners who need software." -- Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft

"I'm concerned that it's going to be a pretty rough holiday season. Everyone's going to be shopping less. First you are going to see less foot traffic and then less inventory on the shelves." -- Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two

"We are entering uncharted water from an economic standpoint. We are holding our breath and hoping the consumer comes out to play." -- Peter Moore, EA Sports

And, while not quite the industry name the others are, BMO Analyst Edward Williams offered his own insight:

"The question is the person who is a little more marginal, the person who is new to gaming and is not as interested in video gaming. That's where I think there is greater potential for risk." -- Edward Williams, BMO

It seems the call of the day is for "cautious optimism" from those making the machines, but a little more trepidation as you move further down the line.

As for Williams' point, it should be interesting to see how that may play out for the Wii, whose holiday season this year has garnered a notorious reputation among more traditional gamers as not having enough of what they're looking for.