Thursday, January 8, 2009

GameStop: Gaming Industry Bucking Recession

More data to support the contention that the computer and video gaming industry has been booming despite the international economic downturn: video game and entertainment software retailer, GameStop Corp., said this morning that it saw record sales results for the holiday season. According to the Grapevine, Texas-based retailer, its sales for the 2008-09 holiday season exceeded $2.85 billion, a 22.3 percent increase from the previous year. GameStop said it also observed a 10.2 percent rise in comparable store sales over the same nine-week holiday period (Nov. 2, 2008 through Jan. 3, 2009). GameStop credited the record-setting numbers to the popularity of many big-name sequels, including Activision's "Call of Duty: World at War" and "Guitar Hero World Tour," Microsoft's "Gears of War 2," and Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King." GameStop also cited strong hardware sales for the increased demand, particularly of Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming consoles.