14 DAY TRIAL // GameStop, the biggest specialist retail chain for video games, has announced that it is launching a new initiative designed to prepare its stores for the launch of next-generation consoles from both Microsoft and Sony and that it is working closely with manufacturers in order to make sure they meet the requirements of the player base.
Tony Bartell, the president of GameStop, has stated, “We anticipate a high level of innovation in the devices, but we also anticipate that to command the higher price points. They will have to be sensitive to those things consumers told us are important to them: backwards compatibility, pre-owned games, etc.”
The executive did not offer clear information on what the public was expecting to see from the next generation of home consoles, but added, “We do know that there's an expectation around innovation and use of the device for multi-uses.”
GameStop has said that it has already prepared staff and stores for the launch of the Nintendo Wii U console, set to arrive before the end of 2012 in all major markets, and that it will take advantage of the spike in hardware sales that it will bring.
GameStop has also revealed its financial results for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which ended on April 28 for the company, showing overall revenue for 2 billion dollars (1.57 billion Euro), which is a decrease of more than 12 percent when compared to the same period of last year.
Sales of new hardware dropped in quality, as did those of new video games and those of used games.
Digital games sales, which saw an increase of 23 percent over the same period of last year, and mobile sales, offset some of the problems that GameStop has reported.
Profit for the quarter has come in at 72.5 million dollars (57.1 million Euro), another decline when compared to the same period of 2011.