Analyst: Games Industry 'Highly Recession-Resistant'

The stock markets may be moving like a rollercoaster each day, but the games industry will be OK, according to the quotable industry analyst Michael Pachter.

From the offices of firm Wedbush Morgan, Pachter wrote "Notwithstanding this month's anticipated decline, we believe that the videogame software sector remains highly recession-resistant," in an investors' note. "This month's anticipated decline" is the almost certain year-over-year drop from September 2007, when Halo 3 had its blockbuster release.

"As a category, games are one of the lowest cost forms of entertainment, particularly to those households that have already invested in a home console," wrote the analyst.

Pachter also predicted that September sales will hit $620 million in software--a 6% decline--but sees large increases in hardware sales, citing increased Wii production and the Xbox 360 price cut that Microsoft claimed gave a 600% bump in sales.