We may be in the middle of a global economic downturn, with consumers being very careful with their money, but nobody seems to have told Nintendo. The Nintendo Wii is ploughing along towards its usual Christmas flurry of sales without a care in the world.

In fact, sales of the Wii are going up month on month in the USA. In October, $1.31 billion was spent in the US on video games, which was an increase of 18% on September’s sales. The spike in sales for October is, unsurprisingly, led by the Nintendo Wii, which has been outselling its rivals since its launch 2 years ago.

According to NPD Group, a market research company, the Nintendo Wii sold 803,000 consoles in October. The Wii is beating its rivals in the family arena, according to Geoffrey Rockwell, humanities computing professor at the University of Alberta.

The video game has come out of the basement.

It’s not just family bonding but you’re finding video games are showing up in different social spaces. When I talk to my students, they’ll often have video games at parties.

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has endorsed his claims, as they’ve published the results of a survey that show six out of ten parents actually play along with video games, showing that video games are now more of a family affair rather than the domain of a lone player.