Not only is the recession doing things like cause hiring freezes and multibillion dollar bailouts, it’s also infantilizing Americans! While unemployment reached 6.5% in October, the video game industry grew 18%. Indeed as poor Neel Kashkari is getting a new wrinkle for each of the twenty banks being given capital injections, there has been a $19 million increase in video game sales from last year.

The New York Times reports:

The U.S. video game industry defied economic doomsayers and grew 18 percent in October, the first month of the industry’s critical sales season. The NPD Group reported that the industry is on a course to hit a record $22 billion in sales in 2008.

That’s surprising, given the weakness of U.S. retailers in October. But it suggests that games are at least somewhat recession resistant, as many observers have been saying all year long, perhaps because entertainment provides an escape from the real world.

Overall sales were $1.31 billion, up 18 percent from $1.12 billion a year earlier. Year to date sales are up 25 percent. Hardware sales were $494.7 million, up 5 percent from $470.5 million a year earlier. Software was $696.8 million, up 35 percent from $514.6 million a year ago. And accessories declined 8 percent to $120.2 million from $130.8 million.

Is it that people want to stay in more, rather than spend their miniscule salaries on $15 cocktails? Or is that Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2 offer an escapist retreat from the horrifyingly dire economic crisis? Or is it that the more the economy sucks, the more get nostalgic for the good old days of having dinner made by mom on the table at six pm, followed by hours of dodging bullets and homework on the Nintendo?