The employees who recently got axed from Electronic Arts probably won't agree with this one. EA CEO John Riccitiello made a rather unexpected comment when he spoke at the DICE Summit, saying that the recession is a "blessing" for the video game industry.

He explains that the recession will force "the riffraff" to go bankrupt, which means less poor quality games in the market. This will also allow developer who "act decisively" to have a more secure future. "Junk is hard to compete with," he says. But he was also quick to add that "I’m not pro-recession, but to quote Rahm Emanuel: never waste a crisis."

I'll have to say I agree with him. And disturbed that I do. Of course, his argument assumes that that every company that survives the recession will be the ones that make the quality games. EA itself recently cut 11% of its employees, which Riccitiello described as trimming "the so-called fat," making EA "stronger and leaner."

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