As digital distribution continues to grow and influence the ever-changing landscape in the entertainment sector, GameStop is working with the tide. Changing their website to display a gaming portal, rather than a purely e-commerce site, GameStop hopes to succeed where others have failed.
New GameStop CEO Paul Raines wants the new GameStop website to be a “destination for gamers, whether they are getting content via online, mobile, console or any other platform. We are also migrating our website from a purely e-commerce site to a gaming platform that users can visit to play, learn and purchase games,” he told The Street in an interview.
As Netflix and Gamefly continue to encroach on territory once dominated by Blockbuster, GameStop is taking a few pages from the playbook. “We have studied Netflix a lot, and most of their users still absorb physical content rather than streaming,” Raines said. “We are looking at how gaming compares. We are focusing on consumer acceptance. The world won’t be all digital tomorrow, even though that's what people are claiming. In this business, users still want physical content.”
GameStop’s business model has long been sustained by physical secondary market sales involving used hardware and video games. A new focus on digital distribution with a strong retention of focus within physical sales echoes strongly with GameStop’s reaction towards EA’s Online Pass. What is of concern at this point, though, is how the new gaming portal will compete with existing services.
2 Comments
July 21, 2010
There are tons and tons of online games portals already so it will be tough for gamestop to succeed. However, they already have huge userbase so they may drive some new people to online games. The more sheep in the field, the better for all of us :)
Petr
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Funny games
July 21, 2010
I support digital distribution because its cheaper to buy online here in Canada'eh than it is in stores.