US retailer GameStop has posted sales of $3.02 billion for the nine weeks ended December 31, 2011.
The total represents less than one per cent growth year-over-year, with the “solid sales performance of new high-def console software… offset by weak Wii software sales and hardware sales”, according to chief executive officer Paul Raines.
New boxed software sales rose 9.9 per cent, led by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, while hardware sales declined 19.6 per cent.
Digital sales jumped 60 per cent over the same period in 2010, led by Call Of Duty Elite subscriptions, while pre-owned sales were up 3.5 per cent.
Raines commented: "We were pleased with the performance of our buy-sell-trade business, digital offerings and mobile initiatives. GameStop also retired the remainder of its long-term debt establishing a debt-free balance sheet as we go into 2012."
In an interview with us last September, GameStop International executive vice president Mike Mauler played down the common preconception that digital distribution is detrimental to the health of bricks-and-mortar retail.
"In terms of where the industry’s going with digital, free-to-play etc, I personally don’t see it as cannibalistic,” he said. “You’ll see a lot of articles giving the impression that a dollar spent on digital is a dollar lost from boxed product, and that’s absolutely not the case."
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