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Bobby Kotick Talks Gaming As Escapism From Unemployment

Posted November 11, 2009 by David Radd

Unemployment is high in the U.S. right now, with EA announcing 1,500 layoffs over the next few months, the 10 percent unemployment rate isn't likely to get better anytime soon. Speaking to Fox Business [thanks Kotaku], Activision CEO Bobby Kotick fielded a question about how having many young men out of work might affect his business.

"I think that it's one of the profound challenges we face in our economy today and our country today. I think it is likely to affect every business. One of the nice things about video games is that it does give you the opportunity to escape from some of the difficulties in the day-to-day — in your day-to-day lives as you start to think about those challenges," said Kotick. "Whether it's DJ Hero or Guitar Hero or Band Hero or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, these are all products that give you hundreds and hundreds of hours of entertainment for good value."

It wouldn't surprise us that the unemployed are still gaming, even buying games with a lot of multiplayer replay value like Modern Warfare 2, but they probably aren't plunking down $120 for something like DJ Hero.

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz.




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