Which game companies would survive a global depression?

[Bofferbrauer2]

Cerebralbore101 said:

Suppose the unemployment rate in most developed countries rose to 20%. Undeveloped countries have it even worse. Which of the big three do you see surviving? What 3rd party devs survive? What would the industry's landscape look like ten or twenty years after such an economic fall? 

I see Nintendo surviving due to their giant cash hoard, and the already successful Switch. 

MS should at least live on as a computer company. A rumored $300 Lockheart console would probably do pretty badly, but not anywhere near as badly as the $500 models. I think lifetime sales would be lucky to hit 20 million for Lockheart. Series X and PS5 would be at or below Wii U levels. Nintendo would be forced to do huge price cuts to Switch just to keep selling units above 75,000 a week worldwide. Companies might not even be able to make game consoles in a 2nd Great Depression. 

Anyway, what's your take on it? 

Sadly, I see mostly the indies taking a hit and the big publishers surviving due to lootboxes surprise mechanics, microtransactions and the like.

Sony is diverse enough to survive, Microsoft is too big and has Windows to keep itself afloat and Nintendo a ton of cash, so I doubt any of them is is any real trouble.

Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 20 March 2020