Nintendo (NTDOY) says it expects stronger-than-expected sales of Wii and DS game players will boost net income $3.8 billion, or about 59%, for the year ending March 31.

Economic slump? What economic slump? Cars, gasoline, houses or food - bah! It appears videogames trump all in many household budgets.

Nintendo appears ready to pass Sony (SNE) as the world’s largest maker of game players for the first time in about 13 years.

In mid-morning trading, Nintendo lost $0.75, or 1.33%, to $55.50 a share. The 52-week range of $0.95 to $78.50.

In June, Wii surpassed Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360 as the leading game player in US homes.

Wii is equipped with a motion-sensing controller than can be swung like a bat. Nintendo expects sales to reach 26.5 million units this year, exceeding July’s forecast of 25 million.

Nintendo expects to sell 20.5 million touch-screen DS players, beating the July estimate of 28 million.

The company introduced the Nintendo Double Screen videogame player in 2004, the Game Boy Micro in late 2005 and DS Lite in 2006. Wii was introduced in 2006 to catch the holiday sales.

For the year ending March 31, Sony expects to sell 10 million PlayStation 3 consoles and 15 million PlayStation Portable devices.