14 DAY TRIAL // 2009 was not a very good year for videogames, with overall sales down and only price cuts making gaming consoles an interesting buying proposition for players. Yet GameStop, the retail chain best known for its used game deals, managed to do well, seeing sales going up by 3.1% to reach 9.08 billion dollars, although overall profits went down a bit, more than 5% to about 377 million dollars.
GameStop also plans to expand in 2010, opening up 400 new stores and investing in significant improvements for already existing ones. The company also plans to buy back some of its shares, with 300 million allocated for the move, and invest 100 million in acquisitions. Both sales and profits are expected to rise.
Chief Executive Officer Daniel DeMatteo said that “GameStop delivered its second highest earnings year ever in fiscal 2009, in spite of the weak worldwide economic environment. We saw global market share growth as new software sales increased 1.2 percent,” adding that “In 2010, we see great opportunity to deliver earnings growth by improving global operational efficiencies, expanding our leading market share and utilizing the buy-sell-trade model to drive new and used software sales.”
The CEO also revealed that his company was not feeling the effects of premium DLC when it comes to used game sales. Those who are looking for bargains and wait for some time after a major videogame comes out to pick it up will not change their habits just because a publisher is throwing in a piece of content for those who buy the title new that otherwise will cost 10 dollars.
Mr. DeMatteo added that his company was preparing to implement a big push for DLC in its stores, with employees actually educating buyers on the extra content available for something like Mass Effect 2 or Modern Warfare 2 and pushing them to pick it up and activate them in store.