Is Nintendo recession-proof?

Talk of recessions and layoffs loom for many businesses worldwide. Just not Nintendo.

The videogame giant reported highs for sales and operating profit in the fiscal year ending March 31. The company posted sales of more than 1.83 trillion yen and operating profits of more than 555 billion yen.

Worldwide annual sales of close to 26 million Wii home game systems in this past fiscal year brought lifetime totals to over 50 million, while more than 31 million portable Nintendo DS systems were sold in the same period, pushing the lifetime amount past 100 million units.

Fiscal year retail software sales also rose for each platform from the previous year, reaching 197 million units for Nintendo DS, and over 204 million for Wii.

Fiscal year global financial performance, stated in millions of yen, was as follows (percentage changes vs. previous year):

Sales, ¥1,838,622 (+9.9%)
Operating Profit, ¥555,263 (+14%)
Recurring Profit, ¥448,695 (+1.8%)
Net Profit, ¥279,089 (+8.5%)

For the current fiscal year, beginning April 1, 2009, Nintendo projects sales of another 26 million Wii hardware systems and 220 million software units, while Nintendo DS sales are projected at 30 million hardware systems and 180 million pieces of software.