GameStop has released its full-year financial results for its fiscal year, ended January 30, 2016. The company grew its revenues, but if you dig into the results, you’ll see it wasn’t the core game business that drove growth for the company.
Net earnings for the year were $402.8 million, showing only slight growth over 2014’s net earnings of $393.1 million.
But the game business treaded water: New software sales at GameStop stores declined during the holiday period, while used game sales were flat; the company offset this with increases in its “technology” (mobile) and “other” (primarily collectibles) segments, notably thanks to its acquisition of ThinkGeek.
Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews dug into GameStop’s new software sales decline in a blog post last year, and it’s as relevant in light of these numbers as it was then.
The company closed its stores in Puerto Rico during its fiscal year, which also impacted its numbers slightly.
GameStop is not projecting much sales growth for 2016, either — 0 to 3 percent, with comparable store sales shrinking from 0 to 3 percent. On the other hand, it has said it has plans to buy at least two more mobile phone store chains during the year, showing that its shift away from relying heavily on the video game business continues apace.
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2016