Economical crisis , Bail out , loans , Dow industrial average , Higher prices …….. these are all familiar terms that we hear all the time since September 2008 when the economy started a downward brunt . it affected everyone of low ,middle and high financial class .

But has the current financial conflict affected Video gaming industry ?

looking at Black Friday sales which continued till Cyber Monday shows that unlike any other business heads like Auto industry , Video gaming industry has suffered no damages from this state of financial uncertainty .

Sebastian said that initial checks indicated sales were strong at stores and that comparison-shopping engines Shopping.com and Pricegrabber.com show that video games were among the most sought-after gifts for the holidays  .
Microsoft in its recent press release announced that U.S. Xbox 360 console sales over the Black Friday weekend were on pace to beat previous years .
It estimated Black Friday sales were about 25 percent above 2007 numbers and that Xbox 360 outsold PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one margin . though I personally expect the Nintendo to exceed Microsoft in terms of sales but unfortunately as of yet there is no Nintendo report to judge on .

Microsoft was not alone in Black Friday’s sales .   Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing and PlayStation Network at Sony, said in an statement that the company’s U.S. sales are up 90 percent year-to-date and that sales are on track for the company’s fiscal year which ends March 31, 2009.

Retailers reported magnitude sales although it is undoubtedly related to significant discounting during the Black Friday .

Based on Sebastian ‘s comment the best selling products over the holiday weekend were the Nintendo Wii and the Wii Fit game.  the Xbox 360 hardware bundle, Microsoft’s Gears of War 2 game, and Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: World at War were among other top sellers .
on the other hand some titles including  EA’s Need for Speed Undercover and Rock Band  along with Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero franchise had a lower than expected sales . Microsoft also said that Gears of War 2 , Fable II and Lips sold very well .  Xbox 360 ‘s September Price cut also attributed to a great worldwide sale specially during Holiday season  .

Again no report from Sony or Nintendo were released regarding the console sales but it seems that both PS3 and Wii experienced  an splendid time .