Here's How Gamestop Can Survive

The Market's Changing, It's Time They Change With It

Her are the facts, Gamestop, along with all other video game based brick and mortar businesses are beginning to face the same fate as Blockbuster. Unfortunately, the act of buying physical discs is becoming cumbersome to those who live in the digital age. Most consumers would rather download the game straight to their console of choice, rather then go to a store, find the game, listen to the cashier's sales pitch he's been forced to recite, go home, and download the game anyway. By buying a digital copy it removes the unnecessary middle man, along with many other benefits. You don't need to worry about the disc breaking, scratching, getting lost, or even taking up space in you minimalist-style entertainment center. Digital games have removed that stress and at no added cost.

So how can a company, who's main source of revenue is through an obsolete product, survive? Well, most recently Gamestop announce a new subscription service. And that service allows the user to play any used game as long as they want until they want to trade it in for another used game. The length of this service lasts for 6 months, costs $60, and once your done you get to keep the last game you rented. Honestly this seems like a great deal and one that might slow the bleeding, but remember Blockbuster? Did rentals help them? No, but some may argue that there is a gap in the market today with the lack of ways to rent a game other then Redbox's extremely limited selection. But I believe the nostalgia felt by those who miss the ability to rent games will wear off and services such as Microsoft's Game Pass will compete with more incentives. 

Honestly, this may be more of a band aid on a wound that's way too deep. It may help drive customers back to them for a year or two, but Gamestop needs to use this time to learn new ways to diversify. And the number one way they need to do this is by downsizing. I understand they've been doing this since their sales started dropping, I have about 3 Gamestops within 10 miles of me, I think they need to slim down even further. 

Maybe they should leave the limited space of malls and strip malls and invest in larger facilities. With less store fonts leeching revenue it may be feasible for such an investment especially if they use the added space to diversify their brand. They can add stations where people can set up and have lan parties. This can even open the door to tournaments that can be broadcast on their 'Gamestop TV' which is an asset that has gone wildly ignored. Did you even know that Gamestop has their own show that they air exclusively on their TVs? Tournaments such as this can even help their merch sales. If people were to come and be part of an event, they may want to commemorate it, and what better then a mug that looks like Zelda's shield.

Honestly I hope they survive. Music and movie stores have nearly died out, so it would be a shame to see video games see the same fate. But all I can do is hope because it's not my generation that will help make this decision. The majority of the video game market place is still run by kids and young adults, so they'll have to make the choice for us. I just hope Gamestop doesn't see this rental service as a fix as much as a way to buy them time to rethink their business model.

What do you think? Do you still shop at Gamestop, and if not, what would bring you there?