GameStop took in just as much money during this year's holiday season as they did last year.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28932
Gamestop blamed both Wii software sales and overall hardware sales as the reason for their flat numbers this holiday.
Over last year's holiday season GameStop brought in $3.02 billion; this equals 2010's holiday sales. GameStop claimed that hardware sales dropped 19.6 percent, but PS3 and Xbox 360 software sales rose 9.9 percent. No specific percentage was given in regards to the Wii's software sales, but due to GameStop blaming these sales as one of the reasons they did not earn more this holiday, it can be expected they were not good.
GameStop also reported that international in-store sales dropped by 1.5 percent, while US sales increased by 0.3 percent. Together, the result was a drop in in-store sales of 0.3%. After the holidays, GameStop was able to reduce its losses of store sales from 2 percent to 1 percent.
Yes, because if you don't do better every single year, that means you're not becoming a better company.
Yes, because if you don't do better every single year, that means you're not becoming a better company.
This is not unique to GameStop or even video games in general, investors get mad at ANY publically traded company that doesn't see a increase in profits each year (hell, sometimes they get mad even when they do have a profit, but not as much as they expected).
The contradictions of capitalism continue apace! Only a madman or an economist believes in infinite growth on a finite planet.
QuoteThe contradictions of capitalism continue apace! Only a madman or an economist believes in infinite growth on a finite planet.
Are you suggesting it was the finite resources of the planet that held Gamestop back? That seems like the position only a madman would take!
Seriously, the industry has grown from 3.2 to 18 billion dollars in the US alone from 1995 to 2007 - finite economic thinking cannot explain where this comes from!
I dunno, how many people would honestly still be in demand of a wii at this point, even if the software lineup hadn't flatlined? PS3 and 360 make more sense, as they're cheaper than ever, and the PS3 in particular has taken a while to build up steam. I guess you could argue that if the Wii had more going on, fewer people would be buying PS3s or Xboxes to fill the vacuum, but then Gamestop would have sold fewer pricier consoles.
Now if a company doesn't want to be beholden to shareholders (and many companies probably should not!) then they don't have to be publicly traded.
Why buy Gamestop when you could get it cheaper somewhere else?
You could got to Target, buy a Wii at asking price, get an included game and Skyward Sword.
The kind of people who are buying Wiis at this point probably aren't in GameStop's primary demographic.
I once had a game reserved there, and they screwed up the reservation, so i went to wal mart to buy the game instead that day. At wal mart the game was 10 dollars (before taxes) cheaper. Why would you shop at stores like gamestop over christmas where everywhere else is cheaper?
I once had a game reserved there, and they screwed up the reservation, so i went to wal mart to buy the game instead that day. At wal mart the game was 10 dollars (before taxes) cheaper. Why would you shop at stores like gamestop over christmas where everywhere else is cheaper?
I don't know how anyone could make $3 billion+ for one period and complain that they couldn't do better next time. The fact that they matched it seems good enough.
I know, but as a later "finite growth" comment pointed out, it doesn't make sense. Also, GameStop isn't the only store that sells games, so maybe more people started shopping at other stores or online.I don't know how anyone could make $3 billion+ for one period and complain that they couldn't do better next time. The fact that they matched it seems good enough.Like someone else pointed out earlier, the market generally expects companies to constantly grow.
I know, but as a later "finite growth" comment pointed out, it doesn't make sense. Also, GameStop isn't the only store that sells games, so maybe more people started shopping at other stores or online.I don't know how anyone could make $3 billion+ for one period and complain that they couldn't do better next time. The fact that they matched it seems good enough.Like someone else pointed out earlier, the market generally expects companies to constantly grow.
All I was saying is that there are many factors here.
Gamestop needs to step up their efforts at ripping people off. Not every new game they have sold has been an opened clearly used copy, so there is still some room for improvement there. They should make sure each and every game they sell as new has been opened and used. They also need more product pushing. Gamestop employees should be armed with tazers and if a customer refuses to sign up to Game Informer they should be tazed repeatedly until they give in. These are just a few things Gamestop should do to help make more profit.
Just go to any retail store where they put the new games on sale for $10 off and you'll save more and kill Gamestop at the same time. Ugh.