Word from Reuters is that games got a big bump last month compared to this time in 2007. Fable II took first place with 790,000 sales. Second place went to the ever-unstoppable Wii Fit with 487,000 copies. Fallout 3 took third.

It’s not much of a surprise in retrospect. This is the best lineup of games coming out at once I can ever remember seeing. 2007 was no slouch either, what with the Halo 3 money train leaving the station the month before, but this just blows it out of the water.

On the other hand, Wii Fit, Wii Mario Kart (fourth place) and Wii Play (fifth place) aren’t really part of the holiday lineup, what with having been out for quite some time, so maybe there’s something else at work here. I wonder if games are taking a healthy chunk out of other forms of electronic entertainment, led by Nintendo’s storming of the casual market with the Wii. The October news for DVD sales was pretty poor, something attributed to a slowing economy.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean the video game industry is immune to recessions. Highly resistant, possibly, but immune, probably not. I think such a superb library of new games in all likelihood would have beaten 18% if people weren’t worrying about their jobs.

Speaking of which: EA, now that things are looking positive, maybe you’d consider hiring back those 600 people you laid off? I ask for purely selfish reasons. Maybe here around Silicon Valley, we could actually ride this thing out if things don’t domino with people out of work, maybe.

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