‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ GameStop Sales Disappointing, Digital Downloads Preferred Shopping Method
It appears that sales for the recent Star Wars: Battlefront game by Electronic Arts and according to Deadline Hollywood was quite the disappointment. In fact, expectations were not met with satisfaction. GameStop COO Tony Bartel expressed his and his colleagues “lack of faith” as it got closer to the launch date.
“We had high expectations that diminished somewhat as it got closer, and then it failed to hit those lowered expectations.”
On the other hand, Bartel feels that there’s “a new hope” when the holiday season comes around.
“We expect Star Wars to be one of the strongest titles for the holiday season. So we expect it to get back towards on-track for our expectations.”
Even come Black Friday, Deadline Hollywood continued, as Bartel’s explained the Black Friday plan to push the game with a “significant discount” that only his company, GameStop, would provide.
Star Wars: Battlefront wasn’t the only game in which Gamestop lacked in sales. Halo 5 and Assassin’s Creed sales were rather abysmal as well.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, there is a logical reason though. Digital downloads are in competition with the physical copies GameStop stores can provide. In fact, market research reported that in the first three quarters, digital sales beat out physical sales. Comparisons were made to Radio Shack and Blockbuster Video, former brick-and-mortar retailers. This was comparison made by a GameStop conference call, citing that even they are similar to the aforementioned businesses.
Analyst Mike Hickey, explains.
“Blockbuster, Radio Shack — there’s a whole list of former retailers that have been dislocated by digital adoption, and I think eventually you can add GameStop to the list. They’re going to need to close more stores and cut expenses.”
Although, Black Friday can have customers coming through the doors to do their shopping, but it is notable that last year’s Black Friday sales at Gamestop were quite weak.
However, according to analysts and a prominent EA investor, according to Reuters, thought the drop in stock due to lower than expected Star Wars: Battlefront sales was rather “premature.” Apparently, that with the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie coming out close to the holidays, sales would likely be on the upswing and also, even though digital downloads had been made more so than physical sales, one should not have just put faith in that alone.
Christopher Merwin, analyst at Barclays, said this.
“It’s too early to sound any alarm bells. The success of ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ will be largely dictated by how it does digitally.”
It was also noted via Reuters that according to share holder Matt Titus, thought the stock move was an “over-reaction.” He also mentioned that they had “some of the strongest pre-orders in the history of gaming.”
Overseas, sales of Star Wars: Battlefront, according to VG 24/7, ran in the top four of the gaming titles, beating out Fallout 4 as Bethesda’s game sales fell 80 percent in the U.K. It even jumped i the first week above the previous The Force Unleashed game by 117 percent.
Perhaps the hype of the new Star Wars flick directed by J.J Abrams so close to the holiday season could encourage those to enter the stores to do their shopping. Remember, a lot of malls have movie theaters and with that said, would “the force” incline you to stop by a GameStop to purchase a Star Wars “stocking stuffer”?
[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images News]
