GameStop is a video game and gaming merchandise retailer that went public in 2002. It has struggled in recent years as the gaming market has shifted from physical to digital games that can be downloaded. GameStop's sales and stock price have declined significantly as it has failed to adapt to this change. While the overall gaming market continues to grow, GameStop's future is uncertain unless it can successfully transition to new business models that meet the demands of the digital gaming era.

1. 2590576 Kai RenYong

2. Abstract
• Video game culture was a leap for children who grew up watching television, providing entertainment for
children and adults alike. The fascination of video games attract gamers because of the in game interactive,
creativity, satisfaction, relaxation or competitiveness of the game.
• There are various types of video games including arcade games, console games, mobile games for
smartphones, online-only games including MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) and
open environment games.
• In the past few short decades, video game industry has influencing technologically and culturally worldwide
tremendously. Video game creation has become increasingly complex, and the cost of creating a game
nowadays has risen with greater complexity. The video game market is immensely larger than previous
years. there are over two billion gamers across the world. That is 26% of the world's population. In the video
games market chain, game retailers were playing an important role especially since 1990 which was the
explosion of gaming. GameStop as the largest brick-and-mortar video game retailer in the history, showed
strong earnings growth throughout the ‘00s, riding the growing popularity of video games.
•

3. Introduction
• GameStop is an American video game and gaming merchandise retailer that went public in 2002. It has it’s headquarters in Texas and Grepevine. The
core business of GameStop is to sell new & used gaming software, hardware ( exp : Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo consoles, etc), gaming merchandise
and magazine.
• To track it’s roots of GameStop, it was founded in 1984 by former Harvard Business School classmates, James McCurry and Gary M. Kusin opened the
first store at Dallas’s NorthPark Center and named it Babbage’s, which was the early name of GameStop. Henry Ross Perot, an American billionaire was
the first investor at the initial phrase of company and received 1/3 ownership of the company. Due to the trend of console, home video games, colego
vision were growing in popularity, Babbage’s was thriving rapidly and earning lot of profits. 1988, Babbage’s became public company and merged with
Software etc. At that time, Babbage’s was 380 stores and Software etc owned 335 stores. Barnes & Nobel, an American book seller agreed to purchase
Babbage’s chain for $215 million in 1999 and renamed as “GameStop”. Barnes & Noble decided to make GameStop a public company on the New York
Stock Exchange but still maintain majority of ownership. However, through a combination of a 100 million dollars stock repurchase and an additional
dividend distribution, Barnes & Nobles has ended themselves in involvement to GameStop in 2004.

4. • Revenue of GameStop increasing from 1998 to 2004 due to the released and popularity of PS2, Xbox and Game Cube. GameStop was
expanding with non-stop and acquired Electronic Boutique Games with 1.44 billion US dollars.
• On December 27th 2007, the stock closed at an all time high of $63, and the new highest market cap with $9.86 billion.
• After acquired Simply Mac, the largest certified reseller of Apple products and Spring Mobile, retailer of wireless services, GameStop
became the largest video games retailer in the world, with 4761 stores at North America, 1425 stores at Europe, 416 stores at New
Zealand and Australia.
Introduction

5. Body of the Report
⁋ Since 1990s, the spread of the Internet has became a
revolution globally. Entering the Digital Age, the convenience
and efficiency benefit billion of people. On the other side, the
explosive growth of internet pressures in lots of industry to
move forward with the new trends. The gaming industry had
been adversely affected and a huge transformation under the
technology explosion. The market for physical game media
has been in a state of decline since online services such
as Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop, Steam,
Epic Games, all of which offer downloadable digital versions
of games, have taken foothold. Tech giants such as Facebook,
Apple, and Google, are getting into the gaming industry too.
GameStop is currently struggling for survival under the
aspects of innovation and competitiveness.

6. • The major issue is the shift from buying packaged software at brick
towards digital downloads, the market is changing from physical to digital.
Improved download speeds also led to the ability to directly purchase
games online instead of having to visit a store physically. Gamers can
download or even stream games to their consoles and PCs without the
need to buy physical discs. The growing popularity of mobile and cloud
gaming has made the once-necessary trip to the store obsolete.
• The decline in sales of GameStop has been falling every year. These trends
had a direct impact on GameStop’s results and the stock price reflected the
poor performance, dropping from $58 per share in late 2013 down to a low
of about $3 by April of 2020.
• Video game industry in US is roughly $60 billion market according to IBIS
World, roughly 75% Americans have at least one gamer in their household.
However GameStop didn’t catch up the trend and changed their business
model timely. Before the coronavirus pandemic, it laid off hundreds of
employees and plans to close more than 1,000 stores in an effort to cut
costs.
• According to New Zoo, while gamers stuck at home due to Corona virus
pandemic, gamers are expected to spend almost $160 billion in 2020, 9%
more than previous year. Whole gaming industry supposes to be
energized, but GameStop’s circumstance getting worst. Consumers willing
to stay at home, buying the game through e-Platform rather than buying
games at physical stores.
• Even though GameStop created a new space in stores for competitive

7. Conclusion
⁋ Innovation has always been about the video game industry.
New technology, new controls, and new experiences definitely
are to be expected.
⁋ GameStop needs to evolve into a technology company that
delights gamers and delivers exceptional digital experiences,
not remain a video game retailer that overprioritizes its brick-
and-mortar footprint and stumbles around the new ecosystem.

8. Bibliography
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Available at: <https://www.bosinvest.com/blog/investing/gaming-gamestop-what-is-
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<https://www.investopedia.com/can-gamestop-survive-another-bad-quarter-4769582>
[Accessed 15 February 2021].
• Investopedia. 2021. How the Video Game Industry Is Changing. [online] Available at:
<https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/053115/how-video-game-industry-
changing.asp> [Accessed 15 February 2021].
• 2021. [online] Available at: <https://news.gamestop.com/stock-information/stock-quote>
[Accessed 15 February 2021].
• Takahashi, D., 2021. 65% of American adults play video games. [online] VentureBeat.
Available at: <https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/09/65-of-american-adults-play-video-games/>
[Accessed 15 February 2021].
• UKEssays.com. 2021. Gamestop Is An American Based Video Game Retailer Marketing Essay.
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american-based-video-game-retailer-marketing-essay.php> [Accessed 15 February 2021].