Comfort food: Sequels devoured in 'uncertain times'

What do you do when you're short on cash? You reach for what you know and get on out. That's what gamers are doing this year -- and more specifically, this holiday -- focusing a tremendous amount of their "limited" game purchases on sequels, reports Reuters. While the industry hasn't been as "recession-proof" as some would have us believe (think of all those layoffs, doomed studios and golden parachutes), game sequels are doing well at retail.

Activision is the proud parent of two such standouts, both the latest in their respective lineages (actually, this year's Guitar Hero is more like a set of siblings than a single entity). The Call of Duty franchise topped 35 million in total sales following the release of World at War in November, and the Guitar Hero series has seen its total sales surpass 23 million with a handful of installments continuing to clutter up your living space in 2008. In fact, add in Rock Band sales, and the music genre outsold the mighty Madden-led sports conglomerate, solidifying itself as the new regent of redundancy. So then, the industry's New Year's resolution: Let's do it again ... again!