14 DAY TRIAL // Specialist video game retailer chain GameStop announces that it has seen a modest boost in its overall sales from the launch of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 and that it intends to completely abandon its plans to create a game streaming service in the near future.
The company says that global sales for the fiscal year that ended on February 1 have increased by 1.7 percent when compared to the previous tracked period, which also led to solid net earnings.
GameStop says that it has seen an increase in digital sales for the period and that sales of both new video game and used copies have declined by 2.8 and 4.1 percent.
The Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony were launched in November of last year and they have posted solid sales numbers since then, both in terms of hardware and software.
Despite their success, the market has not increased too much because a lot of gamers abandoned their Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 home consoles during the same period.
The positive impact of next-gen consoles is expected to continue in the coming period and GameSpot says that it expects to see an increase in its overall sales and revenue.
At the same time, the company announces that it is closing down its Spawn Labs subsidiary, which was working on creating the hardware and the software necessary to launch a digital game streaming service.
John Hodges, who is a vice president at the company, is quoted by Gamasutra as saying that, “While cloud-based delivery of video games is innovative and potentially revolutionary, the gaming consumer has not yet demonstrated that it is ready to adopt this type of service to the level that a sustainable business can be created around it.”
Apparently, GameStop is more interested in making sure that it can sell vouchers and other content associated with other game streaming solutions, like the PlayStation Now concept that Sony plans to deploy on the PlayStation 4 this year.
The company bought both Spawn Labs and the Impulse digital distribution service from Stardock in 2011 and announced that it had big plans to deliver a solid streaming and download solution in the future.
It’s unclear whether GameStop still has plans for the digital space or it will focus exclusively on its retail stores in the coming years and work with partners in order to offer download vouchers and codes.