In actuality? I think think more and more company's will get bought out by major players. EA and Activision are going to be massive.

To Appease the masses in generally accepted beliefs? NINTENDO WILL SAVE THE ECONOMY. 

Well when you look at the recession after 2001 video game sales just grew year to year till that recession was over, I believe that if anything impact at all would be to hinder sales, maybe just slower but will still grow more then months past, still gaining speed but not at its full potential. The only other impact would be to Sony, cause Microsoft is a bottomless pit of money, Sony is large but would feel the blow of a recession more due to their markets, movies, CD players, TVs, etc, things that don't drive businesses today as much as Microsoft.

during the great depression the only industries that thrived were the Radio and Movie industry... People will always have money for entertainment in the US. Especially videogames, which imo give you the most bang for your buck. I actually think the Wii will thrive, it is the cheapest to make games for so the devs will focus their efforts on the Wii.

But recession or no, media will be fine. Housing, Retail, and Finance industries will be hit hardest. (housing may very well have caused this recession.. but gas seems to be taking the blame.)

More then likely developers will realize they need to make money ;) so they will look at their budgets and cut anything that has a big "?" beside it. That could end up meaning a lot more sequels and a lot less risk.

Recession? Is this talk hypothetically being said or is it true? I haven't heard about it anywhere...Oh wait lol it's hypothetical.

OT: Recession will have effects on products or productions that cost a lot; housing, gas, luxury items, businesses. If a recession were to occur, Microsoft and Sony would be taken hits. Could Iwata and Miyamoto be psychics in wanting to make (a) product(s) that are/is cheaper because a recession would be likely to occur sometime soon?

EDIT: lol if a recession were to occur soon (and I mean soon), I wonder what would happen to high budget titles for Microsoft and Sony. PWNED.

I would expect console lifecycles to get longer, for one. I'm surprised it hasn't been said more (at all?) yet, but consoles are fairly expensive, even the cheap ones, and if people have less money to spend they are less likely to stop using the perfectly good (albeit old) machine they already have. Add to that the fact that every new generation increases the cost to produce a game and you can see why the typical 5 year cycle wouldn't cut it under the threat of a weakening economy.

And no, Nintendo doesn't employ any psychics as far as I can tell, other than a few Pokemon/MOther characters, and they shouldn't be awarded for foresight when all they really did was "business as usual". Sony, however, may have a few psychics though, considering they were claiming the PS3 would be a 10 year console...

Yeah of the three, Nitnendo stands to make the best result of the recession, at current prices Wii and DS are affordale sources of a lot of fun, while PS3 and 360 are a little on the steep side

 You haven't heard about it anywhere?  Do you not read the news?  They're talking about it all over the place.  They arn't all using the word "recession" as it has pretty negative connotations to it.  But look at Bush trying to get stuff passed to stimulate the economy.

 Its only going to get worse as the boomers start retiring and prices continue to rise, as energy prices rise.

If the doha round fails we could be looking at a worse case scenario if a trade war is triggered

recessions last between 6 month and 3 years... if they see it coming they can try and nullify the effects of a recession by preemtively adjusting rates. Greenspan was the master of this, the US in fact SHOULD have had a recession in 1996 but greenspan saw it coming and he adjusted rates PERFECTLY... this "soft landing" was the key to the 10 year boon in the US economy without a recession which lasted until the dot com bubble.