Speaking of America of course, it doesnt seem like it hurt game sales at all.

It's not in a recession. Recession's arn't really that bad unless it's a HUGE one like the great depression. American polticians are doing all the can to prevent one, hurting the future economy and making the eventual unavoidable consequences worse because the term recession has a very negative connotation to it, even if it's a small one... and they want to keep their jobs.

Well everyone's saying unemployment is going up, higher gas prices are hurting spending, stocks are going down, the F***ing war spending, etc. I understand its not a freaking depression, but it seems the games industry is still growing after all negative press about the economy going down. I find it ironic. In my life, im unaffected also.

right now its not a recession, but the concern is we could be heading into one next year, a recession is merely a contraction of the US economy over two consecutive quarters, and most recessions are mild, in fact it would be better if we have a recession at this point, but as Kasz has said they are going to try and delay it as long as possible making the eventual one even worse.

Economic downturns never hurt entertainment, movies for example were huge during the depression, because people want to have some form of entertainment even when times are tought, video games will actually benefit from a downturn, at least Ninty will

ha ha its true, My mom grew up in Korea and was freakin poor as hell back then but she used to always go to the movies. WTF!!!

Not surprising. The harder the situation, the bigger the need to escape it. Drugs are a plague in the poor countries.

Back on the US, they don't seem to suffer from recession (which is about slowly goin down), but might be on the brink of a crysis (oil, endebtment...). Don't know.

i expect a big bang in the american economy ( the way things are going, it will not last )

Because, the economy has hardly dropped at all if you look at its lifetime existence, its only if you make the timespan and range small that it looks like one. I honestly can't notice it and I don't know anyone that does. It hasn't affected me personally at all.