NEWS - Friday, December 13, 2002

Publishers and Stores losing ground
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Shares in video game publishers slipped on Friday, extending a week-long slump, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the sector, citing fears that a slowdown in growth has come sooner than expected. Goldmans warning, on top of downgrades from other brokerages and market research showing industry sales growth slowed in November, weighed on a sector that has been under heavy pressure all week. Goldman analyst Chris DeBiase cut his opinion on the sector to "underperform/cautious" and downgraded Electronics Arts, the industry leader, and Activision, which is No. 2, to "underperform" from "in-line." Shares in game publishers, which have enjoyed robust growth in the past year on the back of competition between three advanced game consoles -- Sony Corp.s <6758.T> PlayStation 2, Microsoft Corp.sSource: http://www.reuters.com/