GameStop released their sales figres for Q1 of 2009 and there were some surprising figures buried in all of the numbers.
A telling sign of the tough financial times people are facing was GameStop’s used game sales, which jumped by a whopping 31.9%. A clear indicator that gamers are still willing to pay for games, they are just going about it in a more money conscious way.
In the same quarter GameStop saw their new game sales fall by 2.8%. This figure may have been lower if it had not been propped back up by major Capcom releases Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5, as well as strong sales of the Nintendo DS and new DSi.
Overall sales for the retail chain rose 9.2% to $1.98 billion, up from $1.81 billion in the same quarter last year. The same quarter in 2008 that saw the release on Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Smash Bor. Brawl. Pretty impressive.
Despite the increase in over all sales, same store sales did fall 1.5% and they continue to see new console sales decline, mostly because of the European recession.
GameStop CEO Daniel DeMatteo is optimistic and looking forward to the sales figures that will pour in later in the year saying “We do expect the back half of this year to be stronger than the first half due to a full and wide-ranging new title lineup. All together, this places us in a prime position to capitalize on the growth in the market in the fall and holiday seasons.”
With Wal*Mart piloting it’s used game buy-back kiosks, GameStop has to be worried that the retail giant may take a big bite out of their used game monopoly. One of the saving graces of their business that helps them turn a decent profit no matter what the economic conditions are.
