Though GameStop has made efforts to quell falling sales, the retailer will be closing at least 150 stores by the end of the year. Much of the company’s sales are attributed to physical copies and used games, so with people steadily switching to digital downloads, and combined with anti-consumer business practices, GameStop has seen its profits fall considerably.
According to the Wall Street Journal, GameStop will be closing 2% to 3% of its more than 7,500 stores globally. This was revealed after the retailer’s reported sales had dropped in its fourth quarter to $3.05 billion, down 14%, while profits fell 16% down to $208.7 million. In its US stores alone, sales fell 13.5% last year.
GameStop CEO J. Paul Raines said in a conference call that the recent holiday season is to partially blame for declining sales as games and hardware were discounted earlier than expected, “leading to a steep decline in retail pricing.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that GameStop will continue to expand its non-gaming business by opening 35 new collectible stores this year. GameStop also launched a Spring Pro Gaming Pass granting discounts on select new games to PowerUp Pro members.
Hardware sales like the newly released Nintendo Switch and upcoming Project Scorpio should bolster sales as Raines noted that the Switch has already caused an increase in traffic to stores.
Source: Consumerist
Jennifer is a games journalist, former games journalist and PR Manager at Gearbox. They contributed 234 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: went on to write for Windows Central and later managed PR for Gearbox Software.