INTERVIEW: IAN SHEPHERD, CEO, GAME


[BIO] Name:


Ian Shepherd Current Job:


Chief Executive Officer, GAME Group


Employment History: 2010 Moving Tribes (Consultant)


2006 – 2010 Vodafone (Consumer Director)


2003 – 2005 Sky Interactive (Managing Director)


1998 – 2004 BSkyB (Customer Marketing Director)


1993 – 1997 Mercury Communications (Customer Director)


1990 – 1993 LEK Partnership (Associate)


can take customers on that journey with us.


So expect to hear a lot about multi-channel, online, digital and Reward Card, what we’re doing in all of those areas and how we’re going to drive them all further.


There’s plenty to look forward to this year, such as the launch of a certain new handheld. How excited are you for Nintendo 3DS? Very. I’ve seen it and I think it’s a fantastic product. I’m also very excited about it for GAME as well. We excel at new launches, we excel at technology innovation and products that people want to see and touch and hold before they buy. We have already taken plenty of pre-orders for 3DS. I think it will be a great launch for Nintendo, and GAME will be strategically important to that.


International sales’ share of GAME Group’s total revenue


40% “


This market is going to evolve so we’re embracing the newest elements. Ian Shepherd, GAME


buy them is changing. So things like social gaming, mobile gaming, and multi-channel retailing are all going to be crucial over the next few years. GAME Group is busy in all of those areas, and we have our upcoming strategy day to show everyone what we’re doing to embrace the new elements of the market and what the agenda is for the next few years. When I look back at our Christmas trading results, they’re great but they’re not the finished article. We’ve got a lot of strategic changes to drive through our business, and we’ll talk about that in a few weeks time.


Is there anything you can tell us about the strategic update? It’s largely based around what we


www.mcvuk.com


have been discussing over the course of the year. We’ve talked about the importance of multi-channel and online – and I want to do more in that space. We’ve talked about getting in the middle of digital and downloadable content – they’re relatively small parts of the industry as its stands today but they are growing and we want to be even more involved with them. And one of the key assets the GAME Group has is our customer relationships and particularly our GAME Reward Card. There are 15 million Reward Card holders around the world, and this gives us a great opportunity to have a deeper dialogue with customers. As the market evolves, it means we


We’re also expecting Sony to finally announce the PSP2 any day now. Do you think there is still an opportunity for the company in the portable market? We’ll see. We’ve seen a lot of questioning in 2010 about what the future of handheld gaming is. Is it all going to be done on mobile phones? Evolutions in mobile phones have really thrown down the gauntlet to handheld platform holders. For a device to be worth consumers owning, it’s got to offer a lot more than what their phone can do. Nintendo very clearly answered that challenge with the 3DS. The idea that Sony would be looking at doing something with their own handheld strategy wouldn’t surprise me at all.


It’s interesting that both 2011 hardware launches are portable consoles. Could this be the year of the handheld?


Let’s wait and see. Our job is simply to create retail theatre, bring people into our stores and sell them products. We’re doing well at that, and will do with any future products.


January 21st 2011 25


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