In light of recent closures and layoffs in the videogaming industry, Garnett Lee at 1up re-examines the conventional wisdom that videogaming is recession proof:

...with installed hardware numbers hitting critical mass, you expect publishers would be putting their foot on the gas to drive as much product as possible into the growing number of gamers' hands. Instead we see an increasingly long list of layoffs and even closures that provide all the evidence you need that this time the recession absolutely hits the videogame industry as well.

I can't recall a time when there were so many dire announcements clustered so closely together. Lee provides a good overview of the current situation, but he ultimately comes out rather bullish with this observation:

While the evidence overwhelming shows that videogames aren't recession-proof, they definitely are recession-sturdy.