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HOLY CRAP

CasioTech

Diamond Member
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6...tml?tag=result;title;1

World's largest specialty retailer reports record Q2 earnings on $1.8 billion in sales for the three-month period.

It's becoming difficult to remember the last time that GameStop wasn't besting its year-over-year quarterly earnings. The largest specialty game retailer in the world announced today that it had continued its trend of record-setting financials into its second fiscal quarter, seeing revenues rise sharply and profits nearly triple.

For the period ended August 2, GameStop raked in $1.8 billion in sales, a 35 percent year-over-year increase. If that number sounds familiar, that's because GameStop also pulled in $1.8 billion during its first fiscal quarter. GameStop's net profit soared an astounding 161 percent from the same period a year ago, rising from $21.8 million in Q2 2007 to $57.2 million for the current reporting period.

Noting that current-generation software sales rose 43 percent for the quarter, the specialty retailer laid out its top-five best-sellers. Take-Two and Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV was on store shelves for only five days before GameStop's Q1 ended, yet it still managed to land the top slot for the retailer's reporting period. Despite falling out of NPD's top 10 list by June, the highly acclaimed action adventure still managed to secure the top slot of GameStop's charts in Q2. Following GTAIV in descending order were Konami's PlayStation 3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4, EA's NCAA Football 09, Nintendo's Wii Fit, and EA's Battlefield: Bad Company.

Thanks to its better-than-expected results, GameStop also revised its full-year earnings guidance upward. The specialty retailer now projects total year-end sales to increase 23 to 25 percent. Earnings-per-share projections are now anticipated to grow by 36 to 39 percent from a year prior to between $2.45 and $2.50.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6...tml?tag=result;title;0

Specialty retailer assures investors that lofty full-year guidance factors in an incremental reduction in price for Sony and Microsoft's consoles.

GameStop may not create video games, but it sure does make a killing selling them. Yesterday, the world's largest specialty-gaming retailer announced second-quarter net earnings to the tune of $57.2 million--nearly triple its profits from a year ago--on revenues of $1.8 billion. As part of the better-than-expected results, GameStop also said that it was revising upward its full-year guidance to investors, projecting its total sales in 2008 to climb 23 to 25 percent.

Interestingly, those estimates take into consideration a $50 price cut for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Speaking to analysts in a postearnings conference call, GameStop chief operations officer and vice chair Dan DeMatteo commented, "Our guidance continues to assume the hardware price cut we talked about at the very beginning of the year, assuming there is about a $50 price cut on both the [Xbox 360] and PS3 going into the holiday season."

DeMatteo went on to say that GameStop expects sales of consoles in 2009 to continue unabated, "because most likely what will happen is the manufacturers will begin lowering the price to keep the velocity going."

Neither Microsoft nor Sony's consoles have had a price-cut proper in 2008, though both have seen hardware revisions. During this year's E3 Media & Business Summit, Microsoft announced that it would be discounting its 20GB Xbox 360 Pro to $299, but then discontinuing the SKU and replacing it with a 60GB system once supplies of the former dried up. Increasingly convincing rumors indicate that Microsoft will soon slash the price of all three of its SKUs, with the 120GB Elite and 60GB Pro shedding $50 each from their respective sticker tags of $449 and $349, and the HDD-less Arcade model dropping $80 to $199.

After saying that it would not discount the PS3 this year on the eve of E3, Sony revealed at its E3 press conference that it, too, would be tweaking its hardware strategy. The publisher said that it would replace its current 40GB PS3 with a similarly non-backward-compatible 80GB model at the same $399 price point. Just this week, Sony introduced a 160GB PS3 bundled with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune that will ship in November for $499.

fuck I knew I should have invested in gamestop.
 
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Hope they are saving that cash so they can feed their childrens when digital downloads are realized.....

It will be a while before consoles adopt this
 
and by that time, the CEO's and Corporate higher ups will have millions and millions of dollars. I think they'll be allllright.
 
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
It will be a while before consoles adopt this
Sooner than you think, no rentals and no used games are two things that are very appealing to publishers. But, both can be accomplished with existing discs using mandatory software activation (phone / internet) with install limits. They are currently testing this "solution" on the PC.

The next step would be total digital distribution, to cut out retail distributors (and the cut they take), but not enough homes have broadband and the hard drives are not large enough this generation.
 
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Hope they are saving that cash so they can feed their childrens when digital downloads are realized.....

It will be a while before consoles adopt this

Both Sony and Microsoft are making the necessary first steps towards this already (see: Burnout Paradise, Warhawk, GT5Prologue, Siren, XBOX Originals, Live Arcade, etc). We're still 2-3 years away from the next-gen, but I'd be willing to lay down money right now that next-gen consoles have MUCH bigger hard drives standard (Microsoft won't make this mistake again) and by the middle of the next-gen console lifecycle, we'll be seeing at least half of all game being released either simultaneously in retail and digitally, or digital only.

Just my opinion, but I think it's a good one 😉.
 
so what, gamestop will find a way to have people trade in their HDD's with the games on them somehow.

Somehow I don't see blockbuster or gamestop going out of business.... ever. If games are solely online, that won't happen. Because in 5 years not everyone will have internet so publishers will still print discs. There will be a discount if you buy online of course but then the discs will be even more valuable because they will be extremely rare and sought after for those not keeping up with internet technologies.

And what will happen if the HDD dies? Will you be allowed to d/l backups? If so, that will cause a whole other problem in terms of piracy.

Are you guys saying the next gen won't even use optical drives just a hdd? Then what's the point of inventing a blueray player if everyone will just d/l games and movies to their 10 terabyte hdd's? This will happen eventually but not for another 10 years at least. What about all the other media stores like FYE and Best Buy who sell tons of media? All driven out of business?

Hell, if BB or CC can't sell games, they won't want to sell the damn systems either, so if you want a ps5 or xbox1080 you would have to buy it from sony/ms.com along with all the games. The problem with that is, I'm not sure MS wants to deal directly with the public selling hardware and software to consumers. That's what the middleman is for, the same middleman you guys project is going to go out of business.

/blahahhh end rant.
 
Most of Gamestop's profits come off of used game sales. They've also said they aren't worried about digital downloads. Not this generation maybe but they've got to be worried about the next generation.
 
Originally posted by: Queasy
Most of Gamestop's profits come off of used game sales. They've also said they aren't worried about digital downloads. Not this generation maybe but they've got to be worried about the next generation.

even still, if the next gen has a 500gb hdd. That's only like fucking TEN GAMES on a blueray. That's nothing, if the average person wants to collect about 50 games or more, they would need a 2.5 terabyte hdd. What's the point of adding 5 hdds?!

This is the reason digital d/l's won't happen. Blueray is probably a penny per gb. HDD space will always be too damn expensive.


EDIT: I also wanted to add that masses are at least 3 years behind this board. A good portion of gamers (kids, parents, w/e) still play ps2 and DS games mostly, so in 3 years, they will only make the jump to the ps3 when they go on sale and games are cheap used.


Unless digital d/l's will be $10, paying $40+ will drive most people away if they can't resell the games. The sales will plummet because nobody will buy a game if they can't resell it or trade it in unless it's epic and this will hurt the industry.

I also think that the industry makes more than enough money. The average game doesn't cost as much as the average blockbuster movie, yet DVD's are $20 and games are $60. I don't get that.
 
I also have a question on game shelf life, how come certain games are only out for two months before they are kicked off shelves and other games like, say SSBB will stay on the shelves for 5 years. Is it because it's a 1st party, popular title?
 
Originally posted by: CasioTech
I also have a question on game shelf life, how come certain games are only out for two months before they are kicked off shelves and other games like, say SSBB will stay on the shelves for 5 years. Is it because it's a 1st party, popular title?

Sales......

Why pull something that is still selling well.
 
some games sell well but they pull them anyway because they get old. I'm sure metroid prime 3 or twilight princess doesn't sell well anymore and it's still all over the place at full price.
 
Originally posted by: CasioTech
some games sell well but they pull them anyway because they get old. I'm sure metroid prime 3 or twilight princess doesn't sell well anymore and it's still all over the place at full price.

Nintendo doesn't drop the price of their games quickly at all. Most the time you see a price drop of one of their titles when they finally move them up to a "Players Choice" type status.
Having those titles displayed is all part of marketing. Showing you have "hardcore" titles as well and most people who game at least recognize the names of of Nintendo's big series.

But a lot of it comes down to marketing for every console. Publishers will pay vendors like GS to put their titles in front of others so people grab that game first.
 
I wouldn't invest one penny in Gamestop. If you look at Gamestop stock price, it was around $60 beginning of the year. Insiders have been selling.
 
Originally posted by: CasioTech
so what, gamestop will find a way to have people trade in their HDD's with the games on them somehow.

That's a little far-fetched, don't you think?

Somehow I don't see blockbuster or gamestop going out of business.... ever. If games are solely online, that won't happen. Because in 5 years not everyone will have internet so publishers will still print discs. There will be a discount if you buy online of course but then the discs will be even more valuable because they will be extremely rare and sought after for those not keeping up with internet technologies.

Regardless if everyone has internet, it's still the way we're going. It won't happen in 5 years, but 10 years, maybe..... The rest of your paragraph is just guessing.

And what will happen if the HDD dies? Will you be allowed to d/l backups? If so, that will cause a whole other problem in terms of piracy.

Maybe you should read up on how the 360 and PS3 deal with this already. It's just like any other DRM, except it's on a closed system.

Are you guys saying the next gen won't even use optical drives just a hdd? Then what's the point of inventing a blueray player if everyone will just d/l games and movies to their 10 terabyte hdd's? This will happen eventually but not for another 10 years at least. What about all the other media stores like FYE and Best Buy who sell tons of media? All driven out of business?

ALL media is thought to be headed towards digital downloads. Once digital downloads are fully realized, then yes, an optical drive then simply becomes an added cost that can be dropped on a console. As for what happens to stores who sell media, they'll need to adapt and sell digitally, or figure out another business plan.

Hell, if BB or CC can't sell games, they won't want to sell the damn systems either, so if you want a ps5 or xbox1080 you would have to buy it from sony/ms.com along with all the games. The problem with that is, I'm not sure MS wants to deal directly with the public selling hardware and software to consumers. That's what the middleman is for, the same middleman you guys project is going to go out of business.

It's silly to think BB and CC would refuse to sell the systems because the media is going digital. And, this thread was solely about Gamestop, but you've slowly brought many other non-specialy companies into the discussion, and now say we're predicting all of them to go out of business. Let's keep it on subject.

even still, if the next gen has a 500gb hdd. That's only like fucking TEN GAMES on a blueray. That's nothing, if the average person wants to collect about 50 games or more, they would need a 2.5 terabyte hdd. What's the point of adding 5 hdds?!

This is the reason digital d/l's won't happen. Blueray is probably a penny per gb. HDD space will always be too damn expensive.

Sure, that ten games on a blu-ray, but name me 10 games right now that use 50GB of space. Hell, name me 10 games that use 25GB.

EDIT: I also wanted to add that masses are at least 3 years behind this board. A good portion of gamers (kids, parents, w/e) still play ps2 and DS games mostly, so in 3 years, they will only make the jump to the ps3 when they go on sale and games are cheap used.

Unless digital d/l's will be $10, paying $40+ will drive most people away if they can't resell the games. The sales will plummet because nobody will buy a game if they can't resell it or trade it in unless it's epic and this will hurt the industry.

I also think that the industry makes more than enough money. The average game doesn't cost as much as the average blockbuster movie, yet DVD's are $20 and games are $60. I don't get that.

You did say correctly about a good portion of gamers being kids, parents etc. However, you then assume these PS2 and DS users are suddenly going to start caring about the resell value on their games and being cost conscious.

As for DVD's versus games prices, movies are more universal, maybe that's why they are cheaper. I really don't know.

some games sell well but they pull them anyway because they get old. I'm sure metroid prime 3 or twilight princess doesn't sell well anymore and it's still all over the place at full price.

To suggest that a company purposefully pulls a well-selling game because it is old is kinda ignorant.
 
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
It will be a while before consoles adopt this
Sooner than you think, no rentals and no used games are two things that are very appealing to publishers. But, both can be accomplished with existing discs using mandatory software activation (phone / internet) with install limits. They are currently testing this "solution" on the PC.

The next step would be total digital distribution, to cut out retail distributors (and the cut they take), but not enough homes have broadband and the hard drives are not large enough this generation.

Add to the mix that more broadband suppliers are charging extra for 'excessive' bandwidth, and their current definition of 'excessive' is only a few games or movies per month. Ouch! It will still be cheaper to mail order, and only download the required patches and desired SMALL DLC.
 
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Both Sony and Microsoft are making the necessary first steps towards this already (see: Burnout Paradise, Warhawk, GT5Prologue, Siren, XBOX Originals, Live Arcade, etc). We're still 2-3 years away from the next-gen, but I'd be willing to lay down money right now that next-gen consoles have MUCH bigger hard drives standard (Microsoft won't make this mistake again) and by the middle of the next-gen console lifecycle, we'll be seeing at least half of all game being released either simultaneously in retail and digitally, or digital only.

Just my opinion, but I think it's a good one 😉.

Huh? Since when? Microsoft is continuing to make this same mistake. There should ALREADY be a 320GB drive option. And at a minimum it should be on the shelves next month for the Holiday Season. But of course, it is not going to happen.

But of course there is a valid MARKETING reason for this. While they want to encourage you to download content or entire 'arcade' games, they do NOT want you to KEEP those games, but instead want you to delete them to make room for the next download. If you KEEP all those downloads, you will download less and less, and profit Microsoft less and less, since you will be replaying the newer titles with all the add on content and 'wasting all your primetime' on the the replayable arcade games, instead of dropping $60 for the next newest over-hyped 20-hour-gameplay 'wonder'.
 
They'll never go all digital downloads only IMO. Some type of retail disc will always remain I think. Will be like Steam is now except every title thats released will be available for download or retail, your choice.
 
Originally posted by: Sniper82
They'll never go all digital downloads only IMO. Some type of retail disc will always remain I think. Will be like Steam is now except every title thats released will be available for download or retail, your choice.

I'd think the opposite - they wish they could go all digital downloads now. Publishers deal with retailers that sell used like gamestop because they have to, not cause they want to.

Publishers want nothing in the world but to undercut gamestop and drive them out of business, so they can put an end to this reselling nonsense, not to mention never have to deal with packaging or shipping, cheaper/older titles sharing space, and to make casual piracy much more difficult. Gamestop, etc tells them - "Sell your digital downloads for less than retail and we wont carry it.", and they have the upper hand now.

The sooner they cut destroy the big retailers that resell games and just ship consoles and a few games to wal-mart and best buy, the better. Probably only the big games will have discs, if the next consoles even have drives.

The writing is on the wall for gamestop already. While you're at it, you might as well buy some stock in blockbuster video.
 
Not a shock - a slower economy is going to lead people to cost-cutting, and used games are cost-cutting. What I'm more surprised about is that people aren't trying to bypass GameStop entirely with regards to selling their own games.

I think console makers and publishers would _love_ to move to an all digital model. Sony, IMHO, has already taken the most serious steps in that direction by selling current-gen retail games on PSN. I also don't think that storage space is necessarily a problem, as long as we allow generic (e)SATA and USB hard drives to be used.

But, as a rational players, consumers are going to require lower pricing to sell similar volumes due to the lack of associated extras (manuals, game boxes) and resale market, not to mention storage space needed. The companies bitterly want to avoid this, so it'll probably happen in a generation or two instead of a cost hike. "Well, games cost more to make now, so instead of passing the cost onto you directly, it's digital all the way!"
 
Just think how much higher their earnings would be if they had stricter hiring guidelines and paid better. Nobody can sell games better than a smart gamer. Back when I worked at EB I could push tons of titles simply because when they customer asked what the game was about I could actually tell them rather than blurting out "Ummmmmmm." It's like they just hire salespeople now 🙁 I can't go into a Gamestop anymore without getting offered to preorder five different games.
 
Originally posted by: Beev
Just think how much higher their earnings would be if they had stricter hiring guidelines and paid better. Nobody can sell games better than a smart gamer. Back when I worked at EB I could push tons of titles simply because when they customer asked what the game was about I could actually tell them rather than blurting out "Ummmmmmm." It's like they just hire salespeople now 🙁 I can't go into a Gamestop anymore without getting offered to preorder five different games.
If you need to push crap games, having a bunch of hard-core gamers in there isn't going to help. "Ursula's Undersea Adventure... uh, yeah, it's amazing."
 
Having a bunch of hardcore stupid gamers won't help. When I worked there I pushed what needed to be pushed, but I did it intelligently.

Does the customer look like a gamer?

Yes: Move on.
No: Prey.

Generally, if the customer plays any games at all then they know what they want the minute the walk in the store and don't want anything else. It would be a waste of both of our times for me to pitch him anything. Unless they ask about a game they just don't know much about and I'm able to explain it to them. That can build up your respect to them, and they're generally your best paying customers.
 
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
It will be a while before consoles adopt this
Sooner than you think, no rentals and no used games are two things that are very appealing to publishers. But, both can be accomplished with existing discs using mandatory software activation (phone / internet) with install limits. They are currently testing this "solution" on the PC.

The next step would be total digital distribution, to cut out retail distributors (and the cut they take), but not enough homes have broadband and the hard drives are not large enough this generation.

Not to mention that I'm sure every other ISP will follow Comcast's lead in limiting bandwidth. I guess the publishers could cut a bandwidth exclusion deal with the ISPs. It would cost them but probably not as much as today's distro model.
 
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