GameStop: People Are Buying New Consoles… But Not Games

GameStop is, love it or hate it, undeniably a barometer of the health of the gaming industry. For many people it’s one of a small handful of places where you can buy games at retail. As a result, when it’s got something to say about sales, it’s worth listening to. And unfortunately, the news is… mixed.

GameStop put out a press release today, touting how it did quite well in selling gamers Xbox Ones and PS4s. And right after that, it admitted that it didn’t actually sell a lot of, you know, games:

Comparable store sales were driven by new video game console sales as demonstrated by the 99.8% increase in new hardware sales.

Paul Raines, chief executive officer, stated, “…GameStop also had the highest software and accessory attach ratio of any retailer for both new consoles. Building off this momentum, we are in an excellent position to drive the global adoption of the next generation of new video game products in 2014.”

During this transitional console period, strong sales of next generation software were offset by a greater than expected decline in Xbox 360 and PS3 software sales resulting in a 22.5% decline in the new software category.

Yikes. Admittedly, the launch lineups of both the Xbox One and the PS4 were a bit weak: The Xbox One had three boxed exclusives to the PS4’s two. And both also put a surprising emphasis on digital gaming, which is going to put GameStop at a bit of a disadvantage.

This is unlikely to change; next-gen consoles won’t see much in the way of new games until next month and no exclusives until the spring. So expect to be able to get some deals out of GameStop in fairly short order.

via GameStop’s press release

(Image courtesy of BoringPittsburgh on Flickr. Even though the GameStop in question is apparently in Oakland.)

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