Mayhap it’s the influx of tainted Chinese toys, or just that people are tired of the same old same old, but consumers still have money to spend this holiday season, and apparently they’ve chosen to spend it on video gaming. Lazard’s analyst, Colin Sebastian, surveyed the gaming industry’s growing sales around the period of Thanksgiving. He noted that video games and hardware sales on Thanksgiving presented a 29 percent growth. Sales on the Black Friday were also up 22 percent from last year. There was also a massive 134 percent boost in the case of video games, consoles and accessories. While online Consumer Electronics sales increased only by 21 percent, the analyst noted that Nintendo’s Wii, Activision’s Guitar Hero III and MTV’s Rock Band experienced supply shortages.

- Michele White