GameStop Sees Record Q2 Sales On GTA IV, Wii Fit

U.S. based retailer GameStop is celebrating record second quarter sales, with net earnings up 162.1 percent to $57.2 million. For the three months ended August 2nd, sales increased by 34.8 percent to $1.80 billion. The company, which operates 5,557 game retail stores in 16 countries worldwide, as well as GameStop.com and Game Informer magazine, saw comparable store sales that were up 20 percent, with new software sales increasing by 43 percent. The company’s five top selling games during the period were Grand Theft Auto IV (Take-Two), Metal Gear Solid 4 (Konami), NCAA Football 09 (EA), Wii Fit and Battlefield: Bad Company (EA). The company expects Guitar Hero: World Tour, Call of Duty: World at War, Lego Batman, LittleBigPlanet, Spore, Fable II, Rock Band 2 and Gears of War 2 to be the major sellers in the second half of the year. Looking ahead to this lineup on the heels of such a strong second quarter, GameStop is raising its full year guidance. The company now expects comparable store sales for the fiscal year ending March 2009 to grow between 12 and 14 percent, with total company sales up 23 to 25 percent. "By prioritizing our investments and focusing our resources, GameStop continues to significantly outperform the specialty retail segment as a whole, when comparing top-line growth, comparable store sales, and net earnings growth," says GameStop chairman and CEO R. Richard Fontaine.