If you’re a fan of buying your video games and related items from physical stores, in particular those with the GameStop name, you might be disappointed to hear things aren’t looking so good for the retail company.
In fact, here’s what GameStop’s chief executive officer George Sherman had to say in a statement regarding the poor economic numbers for the company:
“We expected a challenging sales environment for the holiday season as our customers continue to delay purchases ahead of anticipated console launches in late 2020. However, the accelerated decline in new hardware and software sales coming out of black Friday and throughout the month of December was well below our expectations, reflective of overall industry trends. On a positive note, we continued to see growth in the Nintendo Switch platform, which supports our view that our sales will strengthen as new consoles and innovative technology are introduced.”
It appears that GameStop’s estimations for the 2019 holiday season weren’t met, and that the poor numbers were not at all well received going into 2020. However, based on the success of Nintendo Switch related sales, it seems that the continual release of new consoles and next generation games could be what saves GameStop.
Of course, even with the anticipated arrival of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5, it’s not just about sales being boosted by new products. We live in a digital age when more games are simply being purchased online and even downloaded digitally, and as such there isn’t much demand for a store like GameStop to exist.
Of course, George Sherman is still eager that GameStop will succeed in the long term. Here’s what he added:
“Given the deceleration in sales trends, particularly in December, we are adjusting our sales outlook for fiscal 2019 and now expect fiscal 2019 earnings to be below guidance. While we expect the challenges that we faced in the fourth quarter to continue into fiscal 2020, we believe we have the right long-term action plans in place to optimize profitability and increase new revenue streams in advance of new console introductions for holiday 2020. We look forward to delivering progress against our strategy as we move through the year.”
GameStop definitely isn’t in the best place, and it’s possible they’ll face the same fate as video store chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video did. As people adapt to consuming products digitally rather than physically, it’s very likely that a business such as GameStop could disappear as the video stores did over the last decade or so.