22 MCV 13/08/10 GAMESTOP’S DIGITAL PLAN One Stop shop
GameStop wants to grow globally. But as MCV revealed last week it will use online services, not retail stores, to fulfil its vision. Michael French spoke to the firm’s digital team to find out more…
TRADITIONALLY in games, a company’s expansion means war – territorial occupation, and the slow amassing of legions of worker-soldiers. In the digital age the rules are the same, but it’s not employees companies are recruiting. It’s new audiences, willing warriors in the online revolution. GameStop knows this all too well. As the world’s largest games retailer, it understands territorial expansion like no other. Since its formation from a middleweight indie called Babbage’s in 1995, it has grown into a 6,500-strong global force. International rival Electronics Boutique (2005), Irish chain Gamesworld (2007) and French retailer Micromania (2008) were all consumed along the way. At the last count, it had almost 1,300 stores across Europe. Globally, with a staff count sometimes close to 50,000 (including part-time and seasonal staff), it has more employees than Nintendo, Activision, EA, Take- Two, THQ and Ubisoft combined.
NEXT STOP
Even though it still has yet to make a meaningful play in some markets (its store count for the UK is only in the single digits – the lowest across its portfolio), the firm has moved its objectives beyond the physical. While it is the largest games retailer in the world, it has designs on becoming one of the biggest suppliers of games content in any form via an expansion into online. For Chris Petrovic, the GM of the firm’s relatively new digital ventures group, the strategy is a
way for GameStop to keep apace with the changing lifestyles of the 500m people that visit its stores every year. “Our new strategy is an
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“A first huge step in any business is acknowledging the sea-changes facing
acknowledgement that gamers across all categories are faced with more and more choices to fill their entertainment time,” he tells MCV. “Whereas earlier on in the console cycle they didn’t have as many other opportunities to engage in gameplay.
your industry – and the next is having the fortitude to get ahead of the curve and capture the opportunity there.” Like everyone else in the games
industry, GameStop has been scratching its head trying to work out its place in online and where to put its bets in the long-term – but in the here and now, its focus has been on online communities. It bought Irish online games firm Jolt late last year – and then two weeks ago snapped up US Flash games portal Kongregate. GameStop’s thinking is that it must understand where its current user-base is spending time online. “We see a large crossover in customers [between GameStop and Kongregate] and what we want to do is continue to provide those same core gamers access to all the different kinds of games they are playing,” adds Shawn Freeman, SVP for e-commerce and GM of digital business at GameStop. “We do a great job delivering console experiences to the living room, but now we are also providing them to the PC and mobile devices.”
But it also provides the firm a glimpse into business models untapped by retail. “It gives us additional insight into the burgeoning free-to-play market,” explains Petrovic. “What makes Kongregate very unique is that this audience is ‘core’ – there are real synergies with GameStop customers. We know that our customers
A first step is acknowledging the sea-changes you face. The next is having the fortitude to get ahead of the curve.
Chris Petrovic, GameStop
play games outside of the living room, and that they spend time on Kongregate, and that the free-to-play business is growing – and we’ll get more involved in that.” Isn’t that a challenge for GameStop? Free-to-play is about giving away content – such as Flash games from hobbyist developers – for free, with the money made from advertising or item sales. But GameStop is about selling complete packages, isn’t it?
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GameStop owns 6,500 stores like the one above around the world – its GM of digital ventures Chris Petrovic (inset) is leading the brand’s push into new online services and digital arenas
“It’s an opportunity, not a challenge,” says Petrovic. At face value, that statement sounds hollow – the classic corporate media trained trick of deflecting a negative observation. But it seems GameStop really is interested in this area.
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He adds: “We have half a billion customers coming into our stores every year with a concerted choice to have a high-fidelity experience. But we know they are faced with more and more choices. And as those choices continue to proliferate discoverability and the curation of quality continues to become a challenge. If we can extend those touch points and extend beyond bricks and mortar stores then it is a win-win for them and us as they will continue to see us as a trusted destination – regardless of whether it is for the physical or digital.” Freeman readily admits that there is a contrast in moving a retailer, which needs to sell things to survive, towards being an online portal, which often has a more
relaxed attitude to the distribution of content: “While we broadly understand it, there is a lot of expertise in effectively monetising that area and gameplay we get from these acquisitions.”
STOP GAP
So GameStop is plugging a hole in how its portfolio addresses its current customers. But what comes next for a traditional retailer looking to grow its talents in digital distribution? “For us we feel that that nature of gaming is evolving from a product-based offering to a service-based offering,” says Petrovic. “‘Games as a service’ is an overused tagline in the industry right now – but it bears out. “We truly feel we capture that in retail, plus online with our current businesses. What we are looking at now is an ongoing relationship with consumers where it’s not just a single purchase business model. That used to be the core focus of GameStop’s business and continues to be important – it’s the core revenue driver.”
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