• Cnet, Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:15 AM

There's a school of thought out there that believes that in rough times, people always spend money on entertainment, and that video games in particular are recession-proof. So far, the numbers seem to back that argument up: October video game sales were through the roof, while the recent release of the new "World of Warcraft" expansion broke the all-time record for single-day PC game sales. However, Cnet's Daniel Terdiman points out that even though sales are up and the holiday season looks bright, Wall Street so far doesn't appear to be all that impressed. Then again, what else is new?

And yet the good news keeps coming in. In a recent survey conducted by the National Research Center, 46% of consumers said they expect to purchase a video game system of some kind on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. A separate report from NPD Group showed video games at the bottom of a list of products consumers will cut back on in the next few months. The video game researcher also reported that sector sales grew 18% to $1.31 billion in October, with software up a whopping 35%.

Why are game sales projected to remain strong during a recession? "There are a couple of reasons," says Ron Meiners, director of community for the Hollywood Interactive Group. "One is the traditional value of entertainment during tough economic times. Like the great fantastic musicals in the 30s. Movies did great, because they took people's mind off of the troubles they were facing. (And) video games have great value as entertainment. The number of hours of solid entertainment that comes from a video game purchase is much greater than a movie, for example, for very comparable cost."

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