14 DAY TRIAL // GameStop is the biggest specialist video game retailer in the world at the moment, and the company seems to be moving even further away from the classic business model of selling physical copies, with new financial results showing that full game downloads have more than tripled over the previously tracked period.
The company says its profits have increased by 8.5 percent when compared to 2014 for the first fiscal quarter, which ended on May 2.
Overall digital sales have increased by 17% during the same period, and it seems that both Mortal Kombat X and Evolve were the kinds of video games that attracted the attention of players who were interested in DLC that had no physical form.
Tony Bartel, the chief operations officer of GameStop, is also quoted by SeekingAlpha as saying that "We are seeing far fewer digital tokens packed into hardware and we do not expect significant digital pack-ins for the balance of the year."
This means that, in the coming months, neither console markers nor PC hardware creators are interested in introducing video games in the packaging for the products that they are about to launch.
GameStop is apparently also interested in creating new types of storefronts, where the focus will be on board games, card games, non-game collectibles, T-shirts and other branded physical goods that are linked to major franchises.
Apparently, the idea will be initially tested in Australia.
The digital market is becoming increasingly important for video games
GameStop was at one point threatened by the fact that more players tend to have solid access to the Internet and can download content rather than go to a store to get access to it.
Since then, the company has managed to pivot and is now selling a lot of DLC inside its locations.
Both Microsoft and Sony have been promoting the digital market on their Xbox One and PlayStation 4 home consoles.
In the coming years, both companies will expand their options to streaming, with those who use the PlayStation Network able to now use the Now option.
On the PC, Steam is dominating the market and the digital distribution system will evolve in interesting ways when the new hardware devices created by Valve and its partners are launched later in the year.