Digital sales increased 60 percent during the period, led by Call of Duty Elite, a 2011 blockbuster. The paid service reached 600,000 sales in early November and had already become one of the retail giant's "top 10 launches of the year."
New video game software increased 9.9 percent, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 leading the pack to the shock of nobody. New hardware sales declined 19.6 percent as "there were no new console products or low enough price points to stimulate consumer demand."
"During the holiday, our solid sales performance of new high-def console software was offset by weak Wii software sales and hardware sales due to the lack of new hardware offerings versus the 2010 period. We were pleased with the performance of our buy-sell-trade business, digital offerings and mobile initiatives," said CEO Paul Raines. The company's used sales increased 3.5 percent during the period, with iOS trade-ins exceeding expectations. "GameStop also retired the remainder of its long-term debt establishing a debt-free balance sheet as we go into 2012."
