GameStop shares slip 10%

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 20th 2007 at 3:30PM }

GameStop announced that it doesn't expect an insanely strong fourth quarter due to competition, which resulted in a 10% drop in its stock price. Don't get any sneaky ideas all you GameStop haters -- just because the group won't be making as much money as expected, doesn't mean it still won't be making tons of it during the holiday season.

GameStop continues its expansion and still sees great profits every quarter. In Q3, net income reached $52 million from Halo 3 and Guitar Hero II, up from the $13.6 million a year prior. The video game pawn shop will continue to make money, have no fear of that.

Tags: business, gamestop, money, profits, shares

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

xXFenixKnightXx @ Nov 20th 2007 3:34PM

Oh Noz!!! Its cuz Ive been going to GameCrazy lately.
I has teh hookups der.

Justin B @ Nov 20th 2007 3:42PM

Meh. There could be some ugly comments in here. Its weird that some people say their local EBGames or Gamestop stores are actually pretty good. I know the stores by me are all awful, and the employees (excluding one manager who is actually cool) are pure evil. They don't offer strategy guides and subscriptions because its part of the job, they do it because they are the evil spawn of Satan and enjoy every moment.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 20th 2007 3:53PM

or maybe they do it because it's part of the job?

XDragon @ Nov 20th 2007 4:20PM

Common man, it is part of their jobs, even best buy is supposed to offer you the service plan on everything. Further more, best buy's console sales are reviewed buy their accessory attach rate. If you sell 10 consoles with nothing, they like a guy that sells 5 each with a controller or a cooler more. That's just their profit margins being forced on their employees. Its like a pc, do you need an xxx cable with that? The cable is at least 300% profit and the computer is more like 5-15%.

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:25PM

well i wouldn't know about their accessory commisions, because the best buy employees never hassle me about it

XDragon @ Nov 20th 2007 4:33PM

You're right, they never hassle me either but they do mention it and so do the cashiers. If you've ever been selected to do their online servay to win best buy cash (2 random shoppers a day get this on their reciept per store), you'll even see that they ask if you were made aware of the service plan. Its free money for them in most cases. Its just like that disc protection crap eb trys to sell when you buy a game.

TJ0331 @ Nov 20th 2007 3:50PM

Probably because over half of their employees are mentally retarded. I refuse to shop there anymore.

Cap'n Jack @ Nov 21st 2007 9:09AM

True that! Also, Gamefly is better/cheaper in the long run.

Shinojii @ Nov 20th 2007 3:51PM

Battletoads 2 plz

PhydeWice @ Nov 21st 2007 1:25AM

4chan user, eh?

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Nov 20th 2007 3:52PM

Meh...I have never had issues with my local GameStop. The employees and manager are nice people who know what they are talking about, won't hassle you when you shop, etc. I've waited in the store for around 30-40 minutes, hadn't bought anything (I was waiitng for someone) and they didn't care.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 20th 2007 3:55PM

Due to competition? From who?

Oh right, the other mega-corps that actually keep stock on the shelves instead of ordering "just enough".

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:03PM

yeah best buy is cool. the one by me always has midnight launches for stuff too, since it's the one by bill gates

jopojelly @ Nov 20th 2007 3:55PM

Yeah, I stoped in, was looking around, one asked me if I needed anything, I said "no thanks", looked around for 5 more minutes, then left. Frankly I've never had problems at Gamestops, it's people who don't know what video games are that have problems there.

XDragon @ Nov 20th 2007 4:01PM

Gotta agree with most of you.
I've been to 1 eb that has an awesome manager and the rest are terrible.
I even get argued with. I went to preorder Star Craft 2 when i saw it on the eb's site for preorder and they said, it was just annouced, we don't have it in the system, like i was stupid so i said, then why's it available for preorder on your web site? He shut up pretty fast.
Then my buddy went there and got a different guy, to order his and he said why are you ordering it now, who knows when it will come out? He says, what?...you don't want my money? Not to mention i want to guarentee i get one on the release date with any limited preorder bonus. Again, he shut up.
Then I saw 2 employees fighting over a used copy of Marvel VS Capcom 2. They refused to sell it and they said the 2 of them were going to play each other to see who could buy it so they could sell it on ebay. What a joke; too bad i wasn't their mystery shopper!
Eb has let themselves go to hell; what a waste.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Nov 20th 2007 4:09PM

Now, I will be honest, I've only been 2 to different GameStops :P

The good one is the one I described above...but the bad ones...was well...bad. The EB I went to (was in the same mall) was good and big, but I think that was before it merged/got bought by GameStop.

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:01PM

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/18

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/30

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/31

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 20th 2007 4:15PM

Oh man. They could write a whole book with GameStop zings. They're all so true it hurts.

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:18PM

i KNOW!

Anticrawl @ Nov 20th 2007 4:19PM

Yeah yeah, Penny Arcade. They're all fine and dandy but they've never been all that funny. Those comics are accurate, but I have yet to crack a smile at any of their stuff.

Cad-comics though, Absath/Tim is hilarious.

Sweet, UPS guy just knocked, time to play Mass Effect woooooo.

Game Artist @ Nov 20th 2007 4:07PM

God I hope those incompetent leaches go out of business with a quickness.

xXFenixKnightXx @ Nov 20th 2007 4:07PM

No, wait. I have a good one for you. One time I went in (Gamestop) just to browse and I overheard an employee telling a customer to buy a PS3 because Halo was eventually going to be Multiplat. INSANE! And the other employees just stood there and didnt say anything back like "uhh no its not." Guess they really do hire anybody.

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:19PM

ahahaha, i guess they get a bigger profit off the (expensive) ps3 sales

Akamaru @ Nov 20th 2007 4:22PM

That's hilarious. I also overheard a Gamestop employee saying that madden was a 360 exclusive!

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:27PM

well the 60fps version is, lol

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 20th 2007 4:33PM

Back when one by my house was still a Funcoland (R.I.P.), I heard some bullshit there too. Some momz asked an employee the difference between Pokemanz Red and Blue. The employee froze for a second while thinking of a lie, and said "Red's first. Blue is the sequel."

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 20th 2007 4:18PM

GameStop shares slip 10%. In other news, Rubang's mood increases 10%. Anybody else having a party tonight? Thanksgiving came early this year!

Jack @ Nov 20th 2007 4:25PM

Am I invited?

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 20th 2007 4:29PM

Who the hell are you?

I mean... YES!

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 4:32PM

Rubang, you don't know Jack?

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 20th 2007 4:36PM

Fuck. I should've seen that coming...

hydralisk456 @ Nov 20th 2007 4:58PM

posting in epic thread screencap plz

Jack @ Nov 20th 2007 4:41PM

God, I didn't think that was going to work. So glad it did.

WiNG @ Nov 20th 2007 5:27PM

Gamestop by me is really good, this couple works there, who both know a lot.

However every now and then the manager is on the floor and he doesn't know shit. Some Dad came in and asked if every Wii game had only motion controls, and the manager said yes. Then the manager tried to sell him Mario Galaxy, and the Dad said his kid was 4 and probably couldn't figure it out, and the manager insisted he just had to wave the controller around.

I didn't say anything b/c I could tell the guy was skeptical but if he made it to the counter I think I woulda swapped him a copy of Boogie or something.

MikeG @ Nov 20th 2007 7:32PM

I hate Gamestop for the very reason that those Penny Arcade comics pointed out. I went to the new one here in my town to pick up Bioshock and was greeted with the familiar "did you pre-order it?" along with a condescending look like I'd broken some rule.

Edguy @ Nov 20th 2007 9:38PM

And here marks the point that speculators should buy a few shares to sell during the heat of the holiday season. :)

La li lu le lo @ Nov 20th 2007 10:28PM

Did you hear that!!?. More and more people are slowly coming to the realization that there isn't one good reason to buy anything anymore at this chain of stores. Look in your sunday paper or print a 10-20% off coupon from the web and you can get your games cheaper at freaking toysrus for christ's sake.

La li lu le lo @ Nov 20th 2007 10:43PM

although I must admit that since the "Bioshock Incident", I've noticed toysrus stepping up their efforts to roll up at the scene as the new kool kid on the block and trying to harp at us cheap ass gamers with popular video games with some sort of deal attached to them. Is that you VP of marketing?

gonk @ Nov 20th 2007 11:57PM

toysrus has those nice buy2get1 sales, but the one by me always gets games like a week later than every other store around. luckily the website does the sales too, but then shipping takes like 3 weeks (it did for bioshock anyway)

MarMar @ Nov 21st 2007 10:17AM

what I find hilarious about this is that Jim Cramer on CNBC (also featured on webblogs) told his audience to buy Gamestop stock prior to Halo 3's release and NOT to by Microsoft stock... Microsoft's stock has gone up for the first time in ages the past couple of months -- Gamestop is going down. Hilarious.

Jess Q. @ Nov 21st 2007 2:28PM

Damn, really? Cause we go to GameStop more now than we ever did even six months ago.

One of the guys who works at ours is totally awesome. Not only did he keep a copy of Halo 3 aside for us (we didn't preorder), when we went in yesterday to get Mass Effect, and noticed a little stack of Assassin's Creed art books sitting on the counter (we'd bought the game there), he quietly picked up one, walked away from us like he was doing something else, then slipped it into our bag. Totally awesome.

One of the chumps who works there, though, had absolutely no idea was Katamari Damacy was, like, two months ago, when a customer asked. I explained, but NO ONE BELIEVES GIRLS, so he had to look it up on his stupid computer. I had to tell him how to spell it, too. Dumbass.

xGeneral DEATHx @ Nov 21st 2007 3:16PM

True. It seems like the ratio of cool employees to douchebags is something approximately 1:10. Most of the time, I go in and ask questions just to see what kind of crap they'll come up with, and if they're actually knowledgeable about the products/have a decent sense of humor, I'll actually ask for them the next time one of the 10 other employees asks "Can I help you find anything?". I actually applied for a job at a local EB Games when I started college; I'm glad I didn't get the job...I wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes there because I couldn't have told a story like, "Oh, 'Cat-uh-mah-ree'? *Thinks, but not too hard* Yeah, that's like Nintendogs, only with cats. And you have to buy this PS2 with it."

The cool employees get props, and maybe one day they'll outnumber the non-gamers that work there.

P.s. Game-related freebies kick ass, but so far all I've been able to bag without the pre-orders were two t-shirts, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Ninja Gaiden. Sigh...