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.

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The NPD Group just released it’s game console sales totals for April and it didn’t look good for the Playstation 3. The high-end console limped into sixth place, beat out by it’s 9 year old predecessor the Playstaion 2. The PS2 price cut is probably the biggest contributor to the 50% increase in sales, leading me to believe that the PS3 may be next in line for a price cut. Sony may have dipped there toe in the water to see how the market would react, hopefully now they take the jump and knock a few dollars off the hefty price tag of the Playstation 3. And with E3 right around the corner it seems like a viable option.

Here are th sales figures for April:

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Gamasutra did the math, and in a recent report they found that Gamestop controls around 21% of the game market in the U.S. That means 1/5 of us (I am guilty too) feed their gaming fetish at their local Gamestop. That also means that 1/5 of us get hassled by the nerd behind the counter  into pre ordering some other game or buying a strategy guide. Erroneous Gamestop dude, just sell me my game and save the sales pitch for the other junk.

The report did not include the sales of PCs or their accessories. It only took into account console hardware or software. So their total gaming market share may even be higher than this report suggests. Also, take into account big box stores and mega retailers like Wal*Mart and this 1/5 market share is even more impressive.

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