Ben-DutkaAnother holiday season, another record-breaking performance for GameStop.
According to Next-Gen.biz, GameStop's total sales hit $2,334.4 million during the nine-week holiday period ending on January 5. This is a 34.7% increase in the year-over-year comparison, which marks excellent growth for both the retailer and the industry as a whole. In that time period, the top five software sellers aren't any real surprise- Guitar Hero III , Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , Assassin's Creed , Rock Band and Super Mario Galaxy . Obviously, it was a heck of a season, and it comes hot on the heels of GameStop and Electronics Boutique merging in 2007, so essentially, it's like two combined groups of sales in one.
“Driven by robust domestic and international sales, GameStop achieved the most successful holiday season results ever,” said company chairman and CEO Richard Fontaine. “Video game software sales grew by 45%, while the next generation installed base is now triple last year’s base and a very positive leading indicator for future sales growth.”
Fontaine did say he wasn't "particularly pleased" with the record numbers the PSP and DS raked in, because he said the three next-gen consoles "proved to be on many holiday wishlists" and sales for all three "were very strong." This strong performance allowed GameStop to increase its fourth quarter 2007 comparable store sales guidance from 7-9% to about 15.5-16.5%. Full-year comparable sales are now predicted to slide into the impressive 23.5-24.5% range. Clearly, it was a big year for the world's biggest video game retailer, and 2008 might be even bigger. Remember, the truly huge titles are still yet to come, and many have yet to jump onto the next-gen bandwagon. Onwards!
