Gamestop Set to Evolve and Change Alongside Switch to Subscription Services
It’s absolutely no secret that as the gaming industry moves towards everything digital, physical retail chains, like GameStop are struggling to keep up and keep their doors open. In fact, a recent report suggests that their future looks rather bleak. Despite this, the company’s Vice President of Merchandising stated in a recent interview with GamesIndustry that he’s not concerned about this switch to subscription services.
GameStop has been a hot topic as of late, with new reports suggesting that it’s only a matter of time before the once booming company might just have to close their doors for good. According to Eric Bright, the Vice President of Merchandising at GameStop, isn’t worried about the move towards the digital realm of gaming. He wanted to assure fans that the store isn’t just all about physical copies of games, but gaming culture as a whole and that they’re willing to adapt to the necessary changes.
Here’s what he had to say, “GameStop is focused on games and gaming culture overall. Any way that we can look at monetising overall digital sales, we will. You can be assured of that given the fact that we have 65 million members in PowerUp Rewards, we’re no more than a skateboard ride away from 80 percent of the overall population of the United States, and we have 45,000 of the most knowledgeable game associates, which are basically the distributed sales force for the entire industry, working for us.” He continued, “Our partners know that partnering with GameStop on all the new ways of monetisation are in their best interest, so we’re engaging in conversations with everyone as new formats come out. Much like we were able to sell digital and are able to sell digital codes in every single GameStop store and online today, as new subscription models come out and evolve, GameStop will evolve right along with it.”
What do you think about this? Do you believe that selling gaming paraphernalia in addition to physical games, or game code cards will be enough to keep the company afloat moving forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to keep it locked for updates!