Video game retailer GameStop appears to be continuing its ongoing struggle, according to the company's latest financial report. The third quarter of the year brought in a loss of $488.6 million dollars, which in turn caused company stocks to plummet by 13%. Despite what could be considered a record year for the gaming industry, GameStop saw lower than expected sales for major releases, as well as weak performance for pre-owned purchases. Rob Lloyd, chief operating and financial officer, claimed that though Black Friday/Cyber Monday did well to increase sales performance, he has lowered investor expectations for the following holiday season, stating that software sales will not be very high, compared to hardware, likely resulting in further losses during an important season.

While our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were strong, we anticipate that our fourth quarter sales will skew more towards hardware than initially planned which, along with underperformance of certain titles, weakness in pre-owned and recent sales promotions, will result in fourth quarter earnings that are below our previous expectations,

Source

 

[the_randomizer]

Probably just marketing decisions based on which brand they think will be (or is) stronger in different regions. They bought EB over a decade ago, according to Wikipedia.

EB games was a lot better. And there was Game Crazy, also better.

 

[Noctosphere]

Probably just marketing decisions based on which brand they think will be (or is) stronger in different regions. They bought EB over a decade ago, according to Wikipedia.

You mean they were two distinct companies before?
I see...

 

[Captain_N]

Gamestop is gonna have to get into the business of repairing phones and computers. The game figurines are not a good plan..
I always had an idea for a game store offering all generations of games. The real money will be made from repairing phones/tablets and computers/laptops not from selling the games. Selling the games is just because i'm into gaming.

Everybody likes online digital copies that you never actually own. I for one like the feeling of actually buying something. In 20 years no one will have any content that is not provided through a online service. Only the smart people will have the content on their own servers. The pirates will be the only ones with content that they can then choose to archive or give away.

The only thing digital has is convenience. Companies would love there to be no physical copies. Then they can sell you the same product over and over again. So my fellow pirates please copy that floppy....

 

[Delerious]

Meh, not really surprised. Gamestop's reputation just keeps getting worse with how they go out of their way to put their shaft into oblivious parents and grandparents. Don't be surprised if you hear or read about it happening again this holiday season! With how shady they are, you'd almost think they were owned by the same guys that run EA.

 

[FAST6191]

They might make more off preowned sales if they made it worth going to them instead of ebay/amazon with your used games

Was it ever "worth" going to them? They, or game shops in general, were solely a service of convenience (a guaranteed, or all but guaranteed, purchaser in a fixed location with no shipping, advertising, or payment worries) for as long as I can remember, and said memory also includes times where yard sales, swap meets, car boot sales, classified ads, computer fayres and more besides were a thing.

 

[netovsk]

Come to Brazil!

Here you can have a 300% price markup on the gaming market and people will thank you for it.

PS4 Pro all yours for only the equivalent to $1000 dollah! Xbox One X real cheap only $700 dollah!

 

[Maximilious]

It's shitty, but it's basically fuck you over, or go bankrupt.

Ahhhhh, the smell of modern day Capitalism.

 

[RPG_FAN128]

To be blunt I am quite amazed that Gamestop is still in business. One time ...(Googles when Last Story came out)... in late 2012 I went into a Gamestop store only to see a USED copy of Last Story (Wii) for a crazy high price. This especially caught my eye as I knew I could buy a NEW copy on Amazon for less money. Intrigued I quickly looked for other used-game prices only to confirm once again NEW Amazon prices were cheaper than Gamestop's USED prices.

And here we are 6 years later and this store chain is still in business?

 

[Xanol]

I can't imagine why there would be an issue? I mean who doesn't like going into a store where the employees' only goal is to upsell you as much as they can, and everything is overpriced. They don't wanna help, they just want to sell you as much shit as possible to meet their quotas. When I can just download the same game cheaper without the harassment, why would I ever go there?

 

[foob]

Speaking of overpriced...

Here in Australia they have more recently opened these Zing pop culture stores which are under the EB GAMES Australia business. With dying physical game sales these stores basically devote the whole store to selling merchandise.

I think my relationship with the word Zing has forever been tarnished.

zingpopculture.com.au

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

This is awful news, not in regards to the company itself but the employees who are at risk of losing their jobs if GS goes under. It's possible it will, just not for now.

We dont have GS in the UK but we have a compnay called GAME that are just as shit when it comes to trade ins. Its a shames cos when i was a kid it was always the indie shops that were the best value. Also they sold imports amongst other things which of course the big chains are not allowed to do.

I miss the days of getting the latest SNES cart for my US SNES months before my PAL console owning school friends

There was GameStation which became part of GAME and GameStop Ireland did ship to Britain though they stopped since earlier this year.

CeX might be crappy for its customers but still have better prices than GAME.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Over here, we have GAME and CeX. Both great stores that don't screw you over.

GAME don't screw its consumers? Guess you're serious cause it ain't April Fools. The prices at GAME are ridiculously overpriced and even when it's on "sale" it's the standard price at other stores.

They're too heading down to bankrupt because their prices are a con, and the rewards card? Just another way of pretending the customer is getting a deal.

 

[nikeymikey]

This is awful news, not in regards to the company itself but the employees who are at risk of losing their jobs if GS goes under. It's possible it will, just not for now.



There was GameStation which became part of GAME and GameStop Ireland did ship to Britain though they stopped since earlier this year.

CeX might be crappy for its customers but still have better prices than GAME.

Gamestation was the best store. Much better on trade ins and most of all they did RETRO!!!! Shame they got swallowed up by GAME.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

Gamestation was the best store. Much better on trade ins and most of all they did RETRO!!!! Shame they got swallowed up by GAME.

I still remember GameStation and wish they had a fighting chance against EB Games / GameStop, GAME and CeX but GAME devoured them. GS had really good prices, friendly service, games were organized.

Besides that, GS didn't slap stickers all over the covers like CeX does.

I don't really buy games these days but still bugs me CeX does that as it leaves the plastic sticky.

I'm surprised GAME hasn't went under.. yet.

 

[SSG Vegeta]

Looks like GameStop will be offering bundles soon in order to stay relevant

 

[pasc]

First the retailers. Then the consoles.
No more hardcopy games any time soon..

I wouldn't like that. At all.
(Not that I buy em from stores, but I prefer to have an actual game in my hand.)

 

[foob]

First the retailers. Then the consoles.
No more hardcopy games any time soon..

I wouldn't like that. At all.
(Not that I buy em from stores, but I prefer to have an actual game in my hand.)

Physical will just get more precious and less-used as time goes on. Then some will see what they've lost. The second-hand physical market is very important and that will shrink further as time goes on. Even with physical today we have an over-dependence of online content, which makes the older stuff even more precious.

I'm surprised GAME hasn't went under.. yet.

In Australia it's already happened. Good article on Kotaku explaining how Game Australia fell apart.