14 DAY TRIAL // GameSpot might be the biggest specialist video game retailer and a driving force of sales for all major new releases, but the company is reporting that it has posted a drop of more than 9 percent.
According to a report, software sales for the quarter ending on October 31 have declined because the biggest AAA titles of the season have failed to attract the gamers’ attention.
Paul Raines, the chief executive officer of the company, is reported by Gamespot as telling investors that both Halo 5: Guardians and Assassin's Creed Syndicate have failed to deliver the expected results during their release windows.
According to Tony Bartel, the president of the company, adds that even Star Wars Battlefront, which launched on November 17, failed to live up to the company's expectations, despite the massive promotional effort undertaken by publisher Electronic Arts.
Gamestop believes that for Halo 5: Guardians digital sales were higher than during previous years, which means that a solid number of players are shifting business models when it comes to their purchases.
Bartel adds, "We are in constant discussions with all publishers and platform holders, and we believe that all major full-game titles launched in this quarter were in line with previously announced digital download levels."
When it comes to the new Star Wars experience, the executive claims that it cannot share actual sales numbers but the expectations that his company had were not achieved, despite the fact that they were lowered before release.
Gamestop is waiting for Black Friday to generate some big sales
The retailer expects a lot of players to pick up the special bundle that it is offering, which features a PlayStation 4 and Star Wars Battlefront for a reduced price and also believes that the launch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens later in December will give the video game a solid boost.
The company says that both Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, the first-person shooter from Treyarch and Activision, and Fallout 4 from Bethesda have managed to deliver initial sales that were close to initial expectations.
Gamestop's performance is important because retail continues to dominate hardware and video game sales, despite a continuous shift to digital distribution.
The company serves as a powerful marketing agent for the biggest releases of the year and a long-term decline for it can be a sign of weakness for the overall industry.
Both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One are currently selling more units than their older cousins did at the same point in their existence.
Sony and Microsoft are trying to generate as many sales as possible during the coming Black Friday period and in time for Christmas.
The PlayStation 4 is dropping the price to 299 dollars (249 Euro) temporarily and offering a bundle that includes Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.
Meanwhile, the Xbox One is offering packages that feature Halo 5: Guardians and Rise of the Tomb Raider, with Microsoft betting that exclusive experiences will draw gamers and will increase sales of the platform for the remainder of 2015.