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GameStop Profit Exceeds Expectations for the Second Quarter

August 21, 2014 By Georgia Dawson Leave a Comment

Gaming consoles sales are still rising and GameStop has nothing but benefits out of the constant trend. GameStop profit exceeds expectations thanks to Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 robust sales.

The solid recent sales increased GameStop shares’s by 8 percent up to $43.8. On August 2, the company reported a profit of $24.6 million. The result is very satisfying, as for the similar period of 2013, GamoStop managed to produce a profit of only $10.5 million, MarketWatch reports.

The total revenue for the second quarter was $1.73 billion, while the expectations were set at $1.65 billion. For the third quarter GameStop maintains a conservative forecast. GameStop only aims to have a 1 to 5 percent growth.

GameStop benefited from increased hardware sales, as well as software sales. A couple of title like ‘Watch Dogs’ and ‘Mario Kart 8’ helped GameStop achieve a 15.6 percent increase in new software sales, Reuters reports.

Business is going well in the U.S recently. During the second quarter, there has been a rise in productivity levels, while unemployment claims are very low. Consequently, investors are more open to place money in new businesses.

GameStop profit exceeds expectations as hardware sales were strong

However, another important revenue source for GameStop is represented by used games. Customers who want to buy a new game, trade an old game and pay a difference. The only prerequisite for this transaction is for the old game disc to be in usable condition.

The company’s model seems outdated for many investors, Nasdaq claims. Without a proper adaptation to new business models and solutions, along with aggressive expansion, the future might look grim for GameStop. The company can easily go from a profitable enterprise to a dinosaur, because it relies too much on a single revenue producing component. Another aspect regarding the company is that its CEO suffered a brain surgery last week and he is expected to recover in six weeks.

GameStop enhances the trade program as often as possible. However, it faces strong competition from now, because Wal-Mart decided to join the trade-in business. Wal-Mart launched the similar process in March.

But even more importantly, Electronic Arts decided to introduce a subscription service in July. For now, EA offers the service only to Xbox One users. By paying $4.99 per month, they have access to all of EA’s games. GameStop profit exceeds expectations, but investors worry that the trend may stop soon.

NVIDIA Launches New Update For Its Shield Gaming Console, Enables Console Mode Button Mapping for Touch Based Games

October 30, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

The Shield from NVIDIA is a gaming console that can run most games developed for Android on it. It has a display of 5 inch but the only issue is that android games being touchscreen centric is a bit difficult to play using the game controller. The Shield otherwise is priced quite competitively at $300.

Realising the gamer’s difficulty, NVIDIA is coming out with an update that would enable users to map the game controllers like the fingers and therefore the need to swipe the screen would not be there. The update would also enable connecting the Shield to a TV screen and playing the game thereon. The Shield is connected to the TV with an HDMI cable and then a Bluetooth controller can be linked. Need for holding the Shield controller in hand would not be there after that.

This mode of operation termed Console Mode would also work with NVIDIA GameStream. Games on the PC which has an NVIDIA graphics card could be connected this way to the TV and be played on the TV screen. The game console supports about 50 games as of now. The advantage is quite clear, that users can play both Android and PC games on their handheld console or the TV screen using this device and the software update from NVIDIA.

The update gets Android 4.3 to the game console. There is also the possibility of the APK or OBB files to be shifted to the external memory card attached via SD Card post the update. Users though won’t have a whiff of any of these changes so far as their using the device is concerned, as they get to play their games without any issues. This frees up internal memory of the handheld as well.

So far as hardware specifications of the NVIDIA shield goes, it is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 4 ARM Cortex-A15 quad core processor. It has 2 GB of internal RAM and the display unit is 5 inch by dimension, having a resolution of 1280 x 720pixels. It also has stereo speakers for adding flavor to the games and WiFi, Bluetooth for connectivity. It also is GPS enabled.

China Puts an End to 13-Year Old Ban on Gaming Consoles

July 11, 2013 By Troy Rubenson Leave a Comment

Since 2000, China had put a ban on console gaming mainly because of the unhealthy nature of video games that could negatively impact the youth. The South China Morning Post tabloid reported that China is going to withdraw the ban that it has imposed on gaming consoles. This means major brands like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft will be able to promote and sell their gaming consoles officially in China.

Even after the ban is uplifted, the gaming console makers are supposed to adhere to the guidelines set by the government. It has been reported that the gaming console makers are required to launch a ship in the proposed free-trade zone that is going to come up in Shanghai.

The withdrawal of the ban allows console manufacturers to sell their devices anywhere in the country but they are subjected to receive approval on each product from cultural related entities. The report says that gaming console manufacturers are required to receive approval from culture ministry. The whole idea behind it is that the government does not want games containing violent content to reach the youth of China.

Even though marketing and distribution of gaming consoles have been since 13 years in China, it is a well-known fact that console hardware has been exported from the country for international since a long time. Major brands like Nintendo and Sony import console components in China and then those components are dispatched to contract manufacturers for building the devices. Foxconn is the manufacturer for Nintendo Wii. The Xbox 360 was built by Flextronics and Hon Hai Precision Industry is also one of the makers of PlayStation 3.

For Chinese gamers, a flourishing yet well hidden ‘black market’ has always been a source to obtain desired gaming consoles. The withdrawal of the ban will certainly allow consumers to easily purchase any gaming console from the Shanghai free trade zone. By doing this, the government of China wishes to portray itself as a positive country for international investors.

The Shanghai free trade zone is being built to turn the city into financial and distribution hotspot for overseas investors. Shanghai is also set to become tax-free zone with topnotch transport and communications. So, companies like Nintendo and Sony will seek approval from relevant government agencies and then start selling their consoles in China.

The news about the removal of ban had lingering around since the past the six months and now it seems that it will so go in effect. China has been major market for smartphones and tablets and game enthusiasts have been playing games on these devices and PCs even after the ban was imposed by the government.

Even though the ban has been removed, it is quite understandable that China will continue to bar the shipping of some video games that contain violent content. The ban on video games never sounded sensible and it was erratically enforced as gamers could play their favorite games on PC or online or through the black market. Now that the door has opened to market gaming consoles in China, it would be interesting to see how Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft fight against each other in the competitive market.

GameStop profit exceeds expectations as hardware sales were strong

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