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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?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday April 04 2019, @05:30PM (3 children)
I am fascinated!!! I calculate that to download a 100K disk for my Model III TRS-80 that it would take approximately 45 minutes 30 seconds over my wonderful 300 baud modem. Unforunately I've heard that most games come on these things called CDs now. Downloading a full CD at 300 baud would take approximately 226 days. What? You say there's these things called DVD's now? Oh my.... I'm sure these games will also take awhile to load on my 2 MHz system....
This sig for rent.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday April 04 2019, @08:14PM
Really!? On my Windows box, the download will take 45 days, no... 26 hours, no...2 days, no...65 hours, no...5 days, no...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Friday April 05 2019, @01:23AM
I use Kapute!s UltraHyperLoader, which will load an entire CD onto my VIC20 in under five minutes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pino P on Friday April 05 2019, @02:02PM
You'll need to sit down for this. If you live in a city, a cable company will lease you a modem that can do 30 million baud. With that, you can buy a buttload of games from BBSes like Itch, GOG, and Steam.
I have a gaming computer made by Nintendo with a 1.8 MHz CPU. Instead of tape, it uses something called flash memory, which is as fast as the BASIC ROM in several TRS-80 models. Games load in 2 seconds.