Slashdot Mirror
Gamestop Reports Loss, 360 Shortages
Gamasutra reports that gaming retail powerhouse Gamestop has reported a slow third quarter, largely based on few big named titles during that period of time. The article also mentioned their frustrations with the 360's limited production so far. From the article: "There is no question that both the core gamer and gift giver are very enthusiastic about this great product. In fact, our attach ratio of games and accessories to date has never been higher for any release in GameStop's history. Our only concern is that the total hardware released to date in the U.S., and to GameStop, are far less than we had anticipated. While we expect to be supplied throughout the holiday season, the exact quantities to be shipped are not yet clear."
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
I love how businesses always call a drop in revenue a "loss." Like they are rightfully entitled to ever-increasing profits and anything to the contrary is someone's fault.
Are roffles what they serve at the IHOPs in Japan?
They haven't had a chance to make massive profits reselling used systems yet. I'm sure they are pissed about the eBay debacle also, what with some high percentage of the initial systems being resold.
I'm sure they'll shit bricks if the PS3 DRM "no more used games" rumor comes true. The weight of the world might shift even.
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
"There is no question that both the core gamer and gift giver are very enthusiastic about this great product. In fact, our attach ratio of games and accessories to date has never been higher for any release in GameStop's history."
Could it perhaps be that the reason the attach rate is so high is because the stores forced people to pre-order the 360 with lots of games they didn't want along with some useless peripherals thrown in with it? Then when they buy the machine they have to buy the games and accessories they want thereby ensuring Gamestop et al get to flog as much crap as possible.
Similar I would think to Sony UK's current tactic of forcing all shops selling PSPs to bundle games that no-one wants with the system, otherwise they don't get supplied with stock.
Packaging and said "bundles" are up to the specific retailers (which doesn't dispute the fact that bundles were prevalent in pre-sales).
to the EB buyout of Gamestop?
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
Well, if in fact Microsoft is losing money with each Xbox360 sold, then it would be in their best interests to keep these stores with as few of them (but always some in or coming in) so that the retailers will have a high demand for the xbox, and as such they can put together more elaborate bundles, because they know that someone is waiting in line to buy. Im sure with some of these bundles, the loss from the xbox is recovered and perhaps some profit is even made.
Didn't Micor$oft also cause the shortage so that the hype would be insane and boost sales over the long term? And of course the sales of the attachments are very high, I was told by my local gamestop that the units were NOT being given out on order of pre-order placement but instead based on how many accessories a consumer bought, so of course those sales are going to be way because people wanted to do their best to get one of the consols. And as for ebay me thinks 1200 for a console that doesn't even reliably work is just a little steep.
i may be too old for this, or i could simply disable the games section - not an option, i am still interested in games, thus i am also not too old. but i would propose to put 360 related stories in a new category, ads. which i can disable. :)
:)
i am sorry, but this is slashdot, heeeeeellllllooooo. this should be anti-ms, not adding to their marketing buzz.
i have to ask, does anyone still care?
--
go on, mod me down. since the decline of the s/n ratio, i see no use for this kind of karma anymore.
realworld karma is a totally different topic though, tell those moderators to mod me up
Should it be any suprise that they're having a slow 3rd quarter? The last 6 months have been nothing but hype about the 360, PS3 and Revolution telling us that the next-gen games are going to make the current games worthless. Coupled with the fact that, this far into the product cycle, most everyone who would buy the last generation of hardware has already purchased it, is it any suprise that sales of current titles are slacking?
If I was a retailer, I'd be pretty pissed at MSFT for devaluing my current merchandise and failing to supply me with a proper stock of gear that I can actually sell.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
One thing that I've heard is that XBox is trying to play the supply and demand game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that they are doing a pretty good job of it.