* Like-for-like sales in 18 weeks to Nov. 29 up 1.5 percent
* Says year forecast unchanged
* Says confident of successful outcome for year
* Shares down 1.5 percent (Adds more details, analyst comment, shares)
By James Davey
LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - British video games retailer Game Group Plc has continued to buck the high street gloom with a rise in underlying sales, but its rate of sales growth has slowed, the company reported on Tuesday.
"To date our customers' spending patterns have remained relatively resilient, considering the challenges in the wider economy," the 1,340-store group said in a trading statement.
"The board remains confident of a successful outcome for the year."
Before Tuesday shares in Game had lost 24 percent of their value over the last year but had outperformed the FTSE All Share General Retailers index by 65 percent.
At 1005 GMT the stock was down 1.5 percent at 148 pence, valuing the business at 512 million pounds ($760 million), while the wider market was down about 1 percent.
Game said that over the 18 weeks to Nov. 29 group sales on a like-for-like basis, which strips out the impact of new space, increased 1.5 percent.
This compares with growth of 4.9 percent for the eight weeks to Sept. 20.
Analysts said the slowdown reflected falling numbers of shoppers on the high street, stiff competition and very tough comparative numbers. Last year sales in the latter 10 weeks were boosted by the launch of the highly successful Halo 3 game.
However, some brokers were alarmed. "In all likelihood we think that like-for-like sales are currently neutral at best and as a result think the video gaming market has peaked," said analysts at Altium Securities in a note to clients.
They downgraded their recommendation from "hold" to "sell" and cut their price target from 140 pence to 130.
Game's like-for-like sales in its UK and Ireland business increased 1.8 percent over the 18 weeks. They were up 0.7 percent in its international business.
Game said total group sales for the 18 weeks were up 9.3 percent, reflecting the popularity of hardware formats such as PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 and games such as Wii Fit and Mario Kart as well as the addition of 183 stores during the period.
Many British retailers are struggling with intense competition and a downturn in consumer spending, amid sliding house prices, rising unemployment and fears the country has already entered recession.
On Tuesday Tesco Plc, Britain's top retailer, posted its weakest UK sales growth since the early 1990s.
But Game has bucked the trend, benefiting from a growing base of console owners and a strong software release schedule. Gaming is also seen as a more affordable alternative to many other family leisure activities.
For the 44 weeks to Nov. 29 Game's like-for-like group sales were up 11.2 percent, with total sales up 27.4 percent.
The company maintained its previous forecast of like-for-like sales growth of 8 percent to 12 percent in the year to end-January 2009, with gross margin growth of 0.8 to 1.1 percentage points.
Prior to Tuesday's update analysts were on average forecasting a full-year pretax profit of 119 million pounds, up from 75.5 million pounds last time.
Brokers are more cautious about the following year. Analysts at Dresdner Kleinwort expect year to end-January 2010 pretax profit to fall to 110.5 million pounds, with the market seeing more aggressive hardware pricing. (Reporting by James Davey, editing by Will Waterman)