Ananova:

High street video games giant Game is shooting down the credit crunch - with sales figures continuing to grow.

The retailer - which sells games for Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation - announced an annual sales jump of 11.9%.

But the growth has weakened to 1.8% over the last 18 weeks, latest figures show.

Figures for the 44 weeks to November 29 have been boosted by the popularity of games such as Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario, Tombraider and Resident Evil.

Sales of the controversial World of Warcraft series have also helped boost profits.

The game, which creates a vast interactive world for the gamer to explore, has grown into one of the most popular of all online games.

More than 11m people worldwide are registered as players.

Game said that its customers remained "relatively resilient".

The Basingstoke-based company has been one of the strongest performers on the high street this year.

The company has 701 stores in the UK and Ireland, including 253 sites added following the acquisition of rival Gamestation.

Seymour Pierce retail analyst Freddie George said he was unlikely to change his 2008/09 profit forecast of £130m.

But he said the 2009/10 projections were under review in light of the weakening sales trend.