Pachter: October hardware sales to indicate industry's recession resistance

Barring troglodytism or a severe case of denial, it's pretty safe to say that everyone knows the US (and, we hear, global) economy isn't doing too hot at the moment. Although the video game industry clearly isn't recession proof, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter does think that October's NPD hardware sales numbers (expected later this week) will show how recession resistant it is.

Pachter believes that all three consoles are going strong into the holiday season and expects an 18% hardware sales increase over last year. If he's correct, he believes investors should take it as a sign that the video game industry will do better than the average business during the recession. If hardware sales go down in October, Pachter believes the recession would then have infected the industry ... and darkness shall sweep across the lands.