GigaOM » gamestop

Digital replicas still just a tiny sliver of U.S. magazine industry

Laura Hazard Owen — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:27:24 +0000

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) on Tuesday released its first digital-replica magazine sales figures amongst U.S. and Canadian magazine circulation figures for the first half of 2012. The ABC’s data covers over 500 magazines. Here are the highlights:

Print:

Paid subscriptions (up 1.1 percent) and total paid and verified circulation (down 0.1 percent) are basically unchanged since the first half of 2011.
But single-copy sales are down 9.6 percent.

Digital:

Digital replicas (which essentially replicate the editorial and advertising content of the print edition — here are the guidelines) make up just 1.7 percent of total circulation. That’s up from less than one percent last year.
Readers are downloading more digital editions — half of audited titles (258) reported over 5.4 million digital replica editions sold in the first half of this year. Last year, 232 magazines had reported two million digital replica sales.

ABC spokeswoman Susan Kantor says magazines won’t report non-replica digital editions (ie. apps) for another couple of weeks, but those are unlikely to move the needle:

“In the last period, only a handful of publications reported non-replica, so we’d estimate the figures wouldn’t vary that much.”

Top 15 magazines by digital replica circulation

Game Informer Magazine (GameStop): 1,218,634
Maxim (~~Dennis~~ Alpha Media Group) 284,824
Cosmopolitan (Hearst): 185,673
Poder Hispanic (Televisa Publishing): 170,868
National Geographic (National Geographic): 134,656
Popular Science (Bonnier): 93,037
O, the Oprah Magazine (Hearst): 81,259
ESPN the Magazine (ESPN): 76,600
Nylon (Jaclynn B. Jarrett): 75,600
Parenting (~~Time Inc.~~ Bonnier): 74,790
Wired (Condé Nast): 68,776
GQ (Condé Nast): 60,031
Men’s Health (Rodale): 59,536
Women’s Health (Rodale) :51,403
Electronic House (EH Publishing): 50,098

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Social media in Q1: commerce and discovery dominated

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:55:19 +0000

Media issues like advertising and discovery along with commerce dominated the activity in social and real-time Web technologies during the first quarter of 2012. Google raised some hackles, Facebook responded to demands from traditional advertisers, and Yahoo got a new chief executive. The quarter also saw Pinterest, the newest social media star, showing signs of staying power; it is starting to be a force in content discovery. This report examines these trends and more, as well as provides a near-term outlook for the next 12 to 18 months.

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Facebook store flops demand a shift in emphasis

David Card — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:06:30 +0000

Last week, a negative Bloomberg story about Facebook storefronts described how GameStop, Gap, J.C. Penney and Nordstrom had closed their Facebook stores. That doesn’t mean retailers should give up. Instead, they should put their Facebook stores in the hands of their marketing and promotions staff and prioritize marketing objectives over sales.

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Gamestop Tries Its Hand At Android Tablets With Gaming Devices For Holidays

Tom Krazit — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:45:25 +0000

Android partners have been mighty quiet about their plans for second-generation devices leading up to the holiday season, but a newcomer is ready to try something different. Gamestop plans to sell tablets running Android with its own brand across its vast retail network, hoping to entice gamers that tend to prefer iOS with several preloaded games.

Gamestop told the Wall Street Journal that the tablets would become available on Friday. No information was provided on which version of Android they’ll be running (Honeycomb versus the brand-new Ice Cream Sandwich) or how much they will cost, although the report indicated that the Gamestop tablets would be priced at “typical sticker prices in competing stores.” Gamestop will include a tablet version of EA’s Madden NFL and DeadSpace games on the device and a separate remote control designed to work with the tablets will be sold separately.

Android hasn’t really made much of a dent in the iPad’s lead over the tablet market, depending on which market share purveyor strikes your fancy. Early devices like the Xoom are retrenching, while Samsung faces a host of legal issues pertaining to the Galaxy Tab.

Yet Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is hopeful that a new generation of devices can make some headway. The company predicted the launch of gaming-oriented tablets in an interview with paidContent earlier this year as well as a surge in tablet launches from traditional PC companies trying to get into the tablet game.

One flaw in Gamestop’s plan is that any serious mobile gamer is using iOS: Android gaming in general, but especially Android tablet gaming, pales in comparison with the quantity and quality of titles being developed for Apple’s platform.

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Netflix spin-off Qwikster will also rent video games

Om Malik — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:35:58 +0000

Apparently Netflix is changing its name and some of its game. Literally. Lost in the hullabaloo of Netflix spinning off its DVD business is the news that the DVD-by-mail company is going to start renting video games as well, in the process competing with the likes of Gamestop, Amazon and others. This was part of the email Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix sent to the customers this morning:

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow.

If anything, this could be an incremental boost for the snail mail business. Unlike movies, books and music, the shift to digital delivery of the classic video games has seen a much slower ramp up, though I do believe that over next few years that will change, particularly as we experience an increase average bandwidth into homes to over 50 megabits per second.

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GameStop’s iOS device trade-ins now open for business

Darrell Etherington — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:46:00 +0000

In a move that was widely expected, GameStop started officially accepting iOS devices for trade-in as of Monday. The game seller will now pay either cash or in-store credit to customers who bring in used iPods, iPhones and iPads in good condition. It’s a sign of the times that a company that is becoming increasingly irrelevant in the sale of games would target the hardware that’s giving dedicated gaming devices a run for their money.

The trade-ins are conditional upon store manager approval, and if you have your device personalized in any way (i.e. engraving from Apple), you won’t be able to sell it to GameStop. Your device is also ineligible if it has dents or “severe” scratches, cracked screens, won’t power on or has water damage. But if you’ve coddled it in a protective case and haven’t dropped it in a lake, you can trade in any generation of iPod nano, shuffle, mini or touch, as well as all models of iPhones and iPads. Trade-in value is assessed by in-store staff, and you’ll get the option to get either cash or store credit for your device.

GameStop and other brick-and-mortar stores are facing a future in which most game purchases are made online via digital distribution outlets like the App Store, Valve’s Steam service and EA’s Origin. Sony has promised that titles for its next-generation portable, the PS Vita, will all be available in digital format through the Sony PlayStation Store. In response to the digital shift in gaming sales, GameStop has been building out its hardware sales to include tablets, and will next year introduce its own GameStop-branded Android gaming slate.

Apple device trade-ins and tablet sales are smart ways to try and ride the digital wave and gaming for a traditional retail outlet. Indigo, a bookseller in Canada, is trying to accomplish something similar and avoid the fate of Borders by heavily backing Kobo and the Kobo e-bookstore, while turning their retail locations into lifestyle stores that sell a lot more accessories and decorative items for the home. Likewise, GameStop can use its retail presence to support the gaming ecosystem as boxed game sales slow down.

There’s no word on what kind of money you’ll actually get for your iOS devices yet, but if you plan on trying out this service, let us know what they’re offering. I’m guessing you can probably get more money online or via private sale through Craigslist, but for impatient shoppers looking to scratch a gaming itch with older Apple devices that are going unused, GameStop’s trade-ins might be just what the doctor ordered.

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Gamestop Planning Android-Based Tablet With Controller For Mobile Gaming

Tom Krazit — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:03:38 +0000

We’re not so sure that people want to buy tablets from newspapers, but would they consider buying a tablet from video game retailer? Gamestop has decided to build an Android tablet that will feature the company’s brand and offer both gaming apps and streaming games on a device that will also come with a controller.

In an industry with GamesIndustry.biz, Gamestop’s Tony Bartel said the company has started testing an Android device that will be centered around video games. Games are easily one of the most popular types of applications for tablets, but a touchscreen is not necessarily the best tool for creating games as compelling as those designed for the PC or gaming console.

Bartel wants to ship a tablet that will come with games designed around a mobile controller, although he didn’t share any specific details in the interview. Gamestop is a prominent force in video game retailing with over 6,500 stores around the world, which would give it quite a platform to promote a special-interest tablet.

Personal video game players haven’t been selling as well over the last couple of years as more and more high-quality games have arrived for smartphones and the iPod Touch. People generally seem to prefer one device that does everything as opposed to niche devices, which is why it’s hard to understand why anyone would use a tablet newsreader developed by a media company (the Nook notwithstanding).

But there are always some gamers who are willing to spend more on a premium experience. An Android tablet with a dedicated controller and support from top-tier game studios could be an interesting bet.

Google’s John Lagerling, head of Android partnerships for the company, told mocoNews last week that several companies are planning to make high-end gaming tablet hardware based around a pending version of Android as the holiday season approaches.

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GameStop Gets Digital With Kongregate Buy

Liz Gannes — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:05:28 +0000

UPDATED. GameStop, the world’s largest game retailer with nearly 6,500 physical stores, is acquiring Kongregate, the free online game aggregator. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, except that Kongregate will continue to operate independently under its current leadership in San Francisco (GameStop is based in Grapevine, Texas). The move brings GameStop into the casual and online gaming world with the promise it will market Kongregate to the people who visit GameStop’s stores.

Kongregate, which has 10 million monthly visitors, has succeeded by building a community around its “YouTube for games” reputation wherein players are motivated to socialize and compete against each other. The company has chosen to stay a destination site and not switch to a more Facebook-centric model (a trend, as modeled by Zynga), according to Kongregate CEO Jim Greer in a recent video interview at GigaOM HQ. Greer also talked about the ins and outs of virtual goods, which it provides through revenue-sharing deals with its 8,500 game developers.

Watch this video for free on GigaOM

Kongregate had raised $9 million in funding from Greylock Partners, Jeff Bezos and Jeff Clavier, among others. For a blast from the past, we also had Greer on The GigaOM Show on Revision3 back in the day (November 2007). Gotta love that peppy theme song.

Update: James Slavet of Greylock, who served on the Kongregate board, spoke to us about the deal, which he called “definitely a positive outcome” for the startup and its investors. He described the acquisition as Goliath joining forces with David to tackle the game industry as it moves to the browser, calling GameStop “the Walmart or BestBuy of gaming,” while Kongregate is a scrappy startup in Silicon Valley built by a developer who’s been coding games all his life.

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Is There Any Demand for a True Gaming Phone?

Xbox 360 Games on Demand Hobbled by Greed

Michael Wolf — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:00:27 +0000

While the big buzz about the recent Xbox software update centered around social TV, avatar marketplaces and Netflix, it was another feature that was perhaps the biggest news of all: Games on Demand. With the recent update, Xbox Live customers can now purchase and download the full versions of current generation game titles directly to their console.

Why was the Games on Demand feature from Xbox 360 such big news? Because while smaller casual games (and game demos of full titles) have been available for download through the Xbox Live Marketplace, the recent upgrade pushes the console world – or at least the Xbox 360 – fully into the world of digital game distribution.

Some – including yours truly – have long predicted full-game downloads, but now that they’re here, will consumers embrace them?

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Tech Retail: Joy for Some, Coal for Others

Kevin Kelleher — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:00:19 +0000

[qi:053] Every holiday season, it’s the same thing: Numbers showing retail sales are disappointing, data showing retail sales are strong, analysts are chasing their tails trying to explain why, and through it all we consumers just keep on buying.

So the fact that this scenario is playing itself out again this year comes as no surprise. What is a little surprising, however, is how much the gap has widened between the haves and the have-nots of the retail sector. This is especially true for stores that cater to gadget fanatics, and the extent of that gap was revealed in recent weeks, when three major electronic retailers reported three very different sets of quarterly numbers: Circuit City, Best Buy and GameStop.

Below is a graph charting the performance of all three companies’ shares in 2007. As you’ll see, the most recent financial results reported by these companies only served to validate the values the market was willing to place on their respective stocks.

Let’s start with the bottom rung. On Friday, as most of Wall Street was packing up for the year, Circuit City (CC), after posting a widened loss for the quarter ended Nov. 30, saw its shares tumble to a four-year low. And despite the company saying it was “very dissatisfied” or admitting the issues at hand were “primarily self-induced,” on a conference held to discuss the latest numbers, management said nothing about how sales were faring in the crucial month of December.

Far more informative were the comments posted by Circuit City customers on one of the Wall Street Journal’s blogs, the vast majority of which recounted negative experiences. Among them:

“I was attacked verbally by three sales associates for being stupid for not buying the extended warranty….” “The store was a mess, the staff was more interested in the ball game than helping me, and when I presented my web order, the clerk working the computer did not know what to do with it.” “Purchasing puts, shorting shares.”

This isn’t the first piece of dismal news this month for the sector: CompUSA, another store whose image has been hurt by poor customer service, said in the wake of the busiest shopping week of the year that it’s shutting down.

Things are a lot merrier over at Best Buy. Year-to-date, its shares are up 7 percent, a few percentage points better than the S&P 500. And Best Buy posted strong numbers for the most recent three-month period: Its profit climbed 52 percent, beating analysts’ average forecast, which rose in the weeks preceding its report.

Last but certainly not least is GameStop. Its stock, which is replacing Dow Jones in the S&P 500, is up nearly 350 percent this year. The rally has left shares trading at 29 times the earnings projected over the coming four quarters — double Best Buy’s forward P/E of 14, but well below Circuit City’s 159.

What’s going on? With all the gadget blogs, customer reviews and deep discounts offered online, there are increasingly fewer reasons to visit a bricks-and-mortar store and ask a clerk for recommendations. Retailers that can match online discounts, like Costco, are doing fine. That leaves room for a handful of chains, like Best Buy, to carve out a comfortable space.

More successful stores are surviving by offering new reasons for shoppers to visit them. The Internet will never replace the shopping mall completely – but it will challenge chains to evolve. Best Buy’s sales tends to be more responsive than Circuit City’s, but more helpful is that it’s done a good job marketing its practice of letting buyers pick up merchandise bought online at its stores.

Then there’s GameStop. You can read all the video game reviews you want, but there’s no substitute for test-driving a game. GameStop has designed its retail space around that premise. Toward that end, it’s opening “tournament stores” like the 4,000-square-foot space in San Jose, Calif., that will have 24 networked gaming stations with plasma-screen monitors.

GameStop, of course, is taking a page from Apple, whose retail stores draw in crowds year after year. Apple could have followed Dell and sold its products online, but it decided to make its stores an experience that couldn’t be replicated online: not just test-driving the goods, but a theater, workshops and the Genius Bar – all inside stores that often feature innovative design. GameStop and Apple are nudging their stores back to the original idea of the marketplace, where people gather for a shared experience, not just to buy stuff.

None of these retail chains are insulated from the threat of slower sales. Investors are clearly cautious — that much was clear in how shares of both Best Buy and GameStop initially tumbled after they released numbers that included cautious fourth-quarter guidance. But both stocks have since more than made up any lost ground.

Consumers aren’t abandoning retail shops, and they probably never will. They just need newer and better reasons to visit them. The better a retail chain understands this, the better their stocks will perform in the future.

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