Blizzard unaffected by recession

Blizzard are managing to continue growing despite fears of a recession and are optimistic for the rest of the games industry. Not that we follow the news of the financial downturn all that much, of course - computer games have left us poor and ignorant after all.

Speaking to MTV, Blizzard's Rob Pardo explained that not only was Blizzard itself financially secure in the face of the coming credit crunch, but that the company was also confident for the rest of the games industry.

"Historically for us, the game industry hasn’t been affected by recessions like a lot of other businesses. I think the reason for that is [that] games really offer some of the best entertainment value on the market," said Pardo.

"People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you’re staying at home more — and I think that’s one of the reasons why you don’t see games really go in the same recession as the rest of the economy a lot of times."

Blizzard currently has in excess of 10 million subscribers to World of Warcraft alone, each of whom have to buy the game and pay a monthly fee. The company is also currently working on the massively anticipated Diablo 3 and has announced plans to split the equally exciting new Starcraft game into three separate titles.

Or, to put it another way, Blizzard = rich.

Have you had to curb back on your spending as a result of the credit crunch? Let us know in the forums.