GameStop is Talking to Potential Buyout Firms

[W1zzard]

GameStop, which is one of the largest video game retailers, confirmed that they are in discussion with third parties for a potential buyout. To facilitate that, they have hired a financial advisor to help navigate talks. Who they are talking to and in what stages these discussions are was not revealed. The equity firm Sycamore Partners, which among others is invested in Staples, does seem interested in buying GameStop.

The company operates over 7,200 stores in 14 countries, and has been plagued by bad news recently. They had a data breach last year and had to shut down more than 100 store locations. With a net loss of $106 million reported for the year 2017, their stock has slid over 30% bringing the company's worth down to $1.4 billion.



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[Arjai]

Damn! A buddy of mine Manages one of these stores! I should find out how he is doing, haven't talked with him, in quit a while!!

 

[W1zzard]

Damn! A buddy of mine Manages one of these stores! I should find out how he is doing, haven't talked with him, in quit a while!!

Let me know if you find out any juicy details

 

[dj-electric]

Physical game stores should have the same fate as record stores.

 

[SPLWF]

I hate Gamestop, I can't walk into that store and buy something unless I preorder. They never buy extra copies for "walk-ins". This is why I go to Bestbuy, Target or Walmart for games. If I'm not in a rush, I purchase it from Amazon.

Gamestop is good for buying old games. I hope they don't end up like Funcoland

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I hate Gamestop, I can't walk into that store and buy something unless I preorder. They never buy extra copies for "walk-ins". This is why I go to Bestbuy, Target or Walmart for games. If I'm not in a rush, I purchase it from Amazon.

Gamestop is good for buying old games. I hope they don't end up like Funcoland

Gamestop bought Funcoland

Remember those HUGE newspaper like lists of games they had for sale? Oh man the memories!

 

[newtekie1]

Gamestop wants $1.4 Billion? I'll give them $1.63 or $3.26 if they'll take store credit.

 

[INSTG8R]

Gamestop wants $1.4 Billion? I'll give them $1.63 or $3.26 if they'll take store credit.

Beat me to it

 

[TheMailMan78]

Gamestop wants $1.4 Billion? I'll give them $1.63 or $3.26 if they'll take store credit.

Damnit I was going to post something similar! Perfect troll post!

On a side note I was debating @cadaveca the other day about the state of gaming and how publishers were screwing up......he said I was just getting old lol.

ANYWAY SEE DAVE! SEE!

 

[Prince Valiant]

Physical game stores should have the same fate as record stores.

Why? The more stores the better. I still miss when I could pick up used or old computer games on the cheap.

 

[dj-electric]

Why? The more stores the better. I still miss when I could pick up used or old computer games on the cheap.

2 very fundamental things have changed.

1 - physical copies are not cheap anymore. Wholesales in web stores like GOG and steam have long beaten it.
2 - physical copies of old games used to be really cool, with graphics, comics, included soundtracks, and all sorts of goodies. Today? you get a pathetic disk\ online download code and that's it.

 

[DRDNA]

2 very fundamental things have changed.

1 - physical copies are not cheap anymore. Wholesales in web stores like GOG and steam have long beaten it.
2 - physical copies of old games used to be really cool, with graphics, comics, included soundtracks, and all sorts of goodies. Today? you get a pathetic empty disk case holder\ online download code and that's it.

 

[TheMailMan78]

That and the gaming market is in retreat. Publishers have been dropping the ball a LOT with everything from micro-transactions, no full games unless you buy DLC and the occasional SJW BS people are just buying less new games. Still gaming is huge its just not the bull it was.

Games like Destiny, CoD and Battlefront have done a lot to ruin customer confidence in the industry. The industry really needs the next "Skyrim" or "Call of Duty 1" right now or I fear its only going to get worse....and no not just a shitty remake.

 

[rtwjunkie]

physical copies are not cheap anymore. Wholesales in web stores like GOG and steam have long beaten it.

Physical copies of games on Amazon are cheaper than digital, other than the first couple weeks after release. After that they are significantly cheaper than digital which may go down a year later.

This has worked for me countless times, paying 25-35% less than if I bought on Steam, Origin or Uplay.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Physical copies of games on Amazon are cheaper than digital, other than the first couple weeks after release. After that they are significantly cheaper than digital which may go down a year later.

This has worked for me countless times, paying 25-35% less than if I bought on Steam, Origin or Uplay.

Ill have to try that out!

 

[rtwjunkie]

Ill have to try that out!

Of course you still do the download as if you bought digital. But it is usually less money, so I don’t mind having useless disks afterward.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

So on 3 occasions of buying online at GameStop for physical copies I ended up with an instant email code and would get an empty case with another game code in the mail a week later...
I'm sure stuff like that doesn't help..
Plus GameStop charges to much for something you can get at a far better price everywhere.


GameStop has been a train wreck for awhile

 

[Vayra86]

That and the gaming market is in retreat. Publishers have been dropping the ball a LOT with everything from micro-transactions, no full games unless you buy DLC and the occasional SJW BS people are just buying less new games. Still gaming is huge its just not the bull it was.

Games like Destiny, CoD and Battlefront have done a lot to ruin customer confidence in the industry. The industry really needs the next "Skyrim" or "Call of Duty 1" right now or I fear its only going to get worse....and no not just a shitty remake.

You must have missed this year's E3 then. There's so much coming our way, I can't even fathom playing it all. Boatloads of indies now fill up the types of games the big publishers left behind, there is promising new IP on the horizon (Cyberpunk 2077) and console ported franchises land on PC with almost no exception. Microsoft rarely has any platform exclusives anymore - only Sony is left standing doing that successfully.

Year on Year growth of more than 10% averaged between all segments of the market... yeah that customer faith is really going down the drain Take special note of the almost precisely equal footing of console versus PC: 33.3bn versus 32.3bn, with 'browser games' in sharp decline as the only segment in there. If anything that shows that 'serious gaming' is on the rise, and/or that casual gaming is moving away from PC and into the smartphone/mobile platform.

There are many industries jealously looking at the growth in this marketplace and almost none of them can match it. Gaming is larger than the movie and music industry combined.

2017

2016

 

[TheMailMan78]

You must have missed this year's E3 then. There's so much coming our way, I can't even fathom playing it all. Boatloads of indies now fill up the types of games the big publishers left behind, there is promising new IP on the horizon (Cyberpunk 2077) and console ported franchises land on PC with almost no exception. Microsoft rarely has any platform exclusives anymore - only Sony is left standing doing that successfully.

Year on Year growth of more than 10% averaged between all segments of the market... yeah that customer faith is really going down the drain Take special note of the almost precisely equal footing of console versus PC: 33.3bn versus 32.3bn, with 'browser games' in sharp decline as the only segment in there. If anything that shows that 'serious gaming' is on the rise, and/or that casual gaming is moving away from PC and into the smartphone/mobile platform.

There are many industries jealously looking at the growth in this marketplace and almost none of them can match it. Gaming is larger than the movie and music industry combined.

2017

2016

First off your source is "Gameindustry.biz". Second I didn't say Gaming was going down the drain. I said it was in retreat. Which it is. The market itself is slowing and thats a fact. As for E3, thats its job. To hype gamers up. I personally only saw a few games I want to play and none of them except Cyberpunk would I pay full price for.

If it was as unstoppable as you say than Gamestop wouldn't be looking to sell off. Also places like Walmart would be looking to expand its gaming sections. NONE of this is happening. We are ending in the console cycle and the PC is nothing but ports and indie junk. People who don't care about games and care about money tend to sell things that don't make them money. Hence Gamestop is being sold. Gamestop is being sold because the market is not only in retreat but expected to keep going.

Gaming isn't dying. Never said it was. I said publishers are losing audience with bad decisions and the market is reacting. Gamestop is a casualty.

 

[Vayra86]

First off your source is "Gameindustry.biz". Second I didn't say Gaming was going down the drain. I said it was in retreat. Which it is. The market itself is slowing and thats a fact. As for E3, thats its job. To hype gamers up. I personally only saw a few games I want to play and none of them except Cyberpunk would I pay full price for.

If it was as unstoppable as you say than Gamestop wouldn't be looking to sell off. Also places like Walmart would be looking to expand its gaming sections. NONE of this is happening. We are ending in the console cycle and the PC is nothing but ports and indie junk. People who don't care about games and care about money tend to sell things that don't make them money. Hence Gamestop is being sold. Gamestop is being sold because the market is not only in retreat but expected to keep going.

Gaming isn't dying. Never said it was. I said publishers are losing audience with bad decisions and the market is reacting. Gamestop is a casualty.

Can't say I see that trend here at all. The only trend I see is that of physical stores dying off and game stores were already casualties, Game Stop is just another one in the long list. It happens across all branches, this is not even remotely specific to gaming. We shop online. For gaming, that effect is MUCH stronger than it is for other physical goods. Obviously store gaming sections aren't expanding, its a waste of space and space is expensive.

Meanwhile the numbers don't lie with 10% YoY growth for gaming as a whole and even though the biggest growth happens on mobile, even PC game sales are still up YoY. Perhaps the only thing you see is that 'growth' is slowing down a little bit. And that is just a simple case of market saturation rather than a retreat. You don't 'lose audience' when the volume of sales still rises.

Don't mistake your own perception of the market for what's really going on... A great example of that (in general) is the yearly CoD release where 70%+ of the comments tell us 'avoiding this' and yet the franchise sells extremely well every time.