As part of GameStop’s recent earnings call, CEO Paul Raines said their third quarter results (ended October 29) for video game hardware and software “came in below our forecast,” with hardware declining by 20.6%, new software sales dropping by 8.6%, and pre-owned game sales falling by 6.4%, though digital sales rose by 13.2%.
Overall, GameSpot posted global sales of $1.96 billion during the quarter (down 2.8% year-over-year), with $50.8 million in profit (down from $55.9 million last year). As Raines revealed earlier this month, the new October game releases “underperformed” for them, with COO Tony Bartel adding, “[…] consoles and video games underperformed our expectations, particularly those that were launched in late October.”
Elsewhere on the call, Bartel highlighted some bright spots for the company, including PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation VR, and Pokemon Sun & Moon:
First, we’re seeing strong demand for new consoles, the PS4 Pro is off to a strong start and VR is generally on the shelves for less than 10 days. According to NPD, we dominated the VR launch with 40% market share on VR software and hardware during the quarter. Pokemon Sun & Moon were the largest launch of the year and we expect to see strong demand throughout the holiday period for these titles.
Asked if the announcement of new consoles such as PS4 Pro had an impact on hardware sales, Bartel replied, “There was definitely a slowdown in the sales of PS4 prior to PS4 Pro,” but once PS4 Pro was released, things picked right back up again.
Later on in the Q&A section, Bartel discussed the early performance of some November titles, saying Pokemon Sun & Moon was the most pre-ordered title of the last five years. “Call of Duty [Infinite Warfare] underperformed our expectations and the last few games have launched recently have been pretty well at our expectations,” he added.
GameStop’s Pre-Black Friday sale is on now, and their Black Friday sale starts on Thursday.
[Source: Seeking Alpha, GameSpot (1), (2), Gamasutra]
