GameStop Corp chief executive officer Ryan Cohen dismissed concerns about the demise of physical discs for video games, insisting that those sales make up a small part of the company’s overall business and reiterating that his long-term strategy is to focus on gaming collectables and purchasing e-commerce giant eBay Inc.
“It doesn’t matter at all,” Cohen said in an interview on Bloomberg TV when asked about how his business will be impacted by Sony Group Corp’s announcement earlier this month that it will end physical production for new games released on PlayStation in 2028. “It is totally, totally irrelevant.”
GameStop traditionally earned revenue from selling new games and reselling used copies from its trade-in program, but that strategy has shifted as digital downloads made players reluctant to leave their houses to purchase a new title. In the most recent quarter, GameStop’s software business – which includes physical and digital copies of games – amounted to 18% of the company’s total revenue.
At the same time, GameStop’s collectables unit has grown dramatically from the sale of trading cards from games like Pokémon and now accounts for 41% of the business. Cohen said that trajectory motivated his ambition to pursue eBay with an unsolicited US$56bil (RM228.5bil) bid, which the e-commerce giant rejected in May.
Cohen deflected a question about signs of demand for the upcoming release of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc’s Grand Theft Auto VI. The Nov 19 launch is expected to be the largest in history and make as much as US$5.2bil (RM21.22bil) in its first week, according to data from analytics firm NewZoo. Asked about what he’s been seeing and what customers are saying about the game, Cohen said, “I want to go back and talk about eBay.”
Cohen said a combined GameStop and eBay could potentially be a “US$1 trillion (RM4.08 trillion) business,” that has substantial compatibility with the sale of physical goods and collectables. – Bloomberg
