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posted by mrpg on Thursday April 04 2019, @10:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the game-over? dept.

GameStop Posts Massive Loss as Pre-Owned Game Sales Plummet:

One of the world's biggest video game retailers just announced its worst annual performance in decades, raising renewed questions about the health of the physical video game market as downloadable games continue their ascent. Net sales for GameStop were down 3 percent for the 52-week period ending February 2, a slide that helped flip last year's modest $34.7 million profit to a sizable $673 million operating loss. On top of that, the company expects sales to decline another 5 to 10 percent in the next fiscal year.

GameStop's massive loss is the largest ever reported by the company, and only the third annual loss since it grew out of the corporate remains of FuncoLand in 2000. GameStop last posted a loss in 2012, when it lost nearly $270 million thanks in part to weak holiday sales near the end of that era's console generation.

But more than the amount, the reason behind the new loss could be cause for long-term concern at the retailer's thousands of worldwide storefronts. While hardware sales were roughly flat and new software sales fell about 4 percent year over year, pre-owned software sales cratered nearly 12 percent for the year, continuing a years-long slide.

GameStop has always relied on the high margins of buying low and selling high on used game discs to buoy an otherwise low-margin business. But the rise of downloadable games, which can't be resold, has taken the wind out of those sails to a large extent. "We continue to see declines in pre-owned software, reflecting the decline in sales of new physical games and the increasing demand for digitally offered products," GameStop COO & CFO Robert Lloyd said in an earnings call.

I'm curious how many Soylentils still prefer to buy their games on physical media and who prefers a digital distribution. What's your motivation? Also, what if anything, can Game Stop do so as to continue as a going concern?


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:02PM (4 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:02PM (#824461) Homepage Journal

    With physical media I don't have to have an Internet connection (I don't play online games). That's not the non-issue it might seem. There are a lot of places I go that broadband is regarded about the same as Chupacabra. Plus my cable connection goes out in bad weather, which TN has plenty of.

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  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:25PM (1 child)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:25PM (#824509) Journal

    FTFY. In this case, FTL of course means "For The Loss" and not "Faster Than Light", which is how fast bricks and mortar dealers of content ought to vanish. What seems most likely to happen to Game Stop can be summed up with one word: Blockbuster.

    Mega indoor shopping malls, the places that I've most often seen Game Stop stores, are seriously out of step with current reality. Bookstores and record stores are mostly gone. Video arcades are no longer stores in their own right but might find one inside a restaurant or attached to a theater. Malls are like 75% women's clothing, and the rest is men's clothing, food, and a bit of entertainment-- theater and a skating rink. If they have any hardware related items, it'll be in a Sears store, and these days, Sears is on life support. No groceries.

    And mega malls are so stodgy and pushy. They made themselves into islands completely surrounded by oceans of parking. Very hostile to pedestrian access, and they like it that way, because they think pedestrians are young delinquent loitering cheapskates who won't spend money, don't have any money. And they've made malls all about the shopping, which was not the original intent. They were supposed to be places to hang out and meet people, and shopping was decidedly secondary.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:52PM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:52PM (#824534) Homepage Journal

      Sears isn't on life support, it's gone. Our local GameStop is in a strip mall and almost always has two or three people in it any time I go in. They do good business around here because TN has a lot of really poor people whose connection to the Internet is nonexistent or a very limited data package from their cell phone provider.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:02PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:02PM (#824541) Journal

    Most of the games requiring an internet connection will store 99% of the game's files on your physical media (hard drive) anyway. If connectivity is for DRM and not multiplayer, then it is anti-consumer trash. But many of those games get cracked within days.

    Now we have 14 TB consumer hard drives at our disposal, with 20+ TB on the way. This is a better time for sneakernets than ever before, assuming you can find someone who will participate.

    As an aside, are you interested in getting Starlink [wikipedia.org]?

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    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:28PM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:28PM (#824573) Homepage Journal

      Nah. If I can't get a wired connection, I'd rather just go fishing. Wireless is always going to be worse and more expensive. Physics says the higher the frequency, the worse matter penetration you get and that's eventually going to run into the fact that clouds and even air are matter. The FCC says you can only have so much spectrum to counteract this. The satellites say this shit's expensive to build, launch, and operate; and a nightmare to upgrade.

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