Ohauerha, what's going on? GameStop has already slimmed down significantly and there are now increasing indications that all branches in Germany will soon be closed.
The sharp increase in digital sales has of course put physical retail in trouble. So it's no wonder that the GameStop chain, which has been stumbling for a long time, closed a number of branches last year, so that in the end only 69 meager branches remained in this country and they are now apparently struggling too.
Like colleagues from GamesEconomy According to reports, there are increasing signs that GameStop will close its remaining branches as early as January 31, 2025. Although this information is still unconfirmed, suppliers to the chain apparently have the same information. This would affect 500 employees in the branches.
Apparently the first branch managers were informed yesterday and some employees had already expressed this to customers (our editorial team has a statement from an employee). Pre-orders and voucher purchases have also already been stopped. An official statement from GameStop has not yet been made, but it shouldn't be long in coming as the news is spreading quickly and the next quarterly report is due on December 4th.
GameStop had already taken a beating during the pandemic and the associated temporary closure of brick-and-mortar stores, and the trend towards digital game purchases also took a big hit. Reducing the store space for games while simultaneously expanding the range of merchandise products and peripherals does not seem to have brought about the hoped-for turnaround. And the online store has to compete against strong competition such as Steam, Amazon, Epic Games and some publishers with their own stores.
GameStop has already slimmed down significantly in recent years, especially in Europe, and has retreated to France, Italy and Germany. There are still around 4,000 branches internationally. It is unclear whether other countries will also be affected by closures, but not unlikely.
Although the company was back in the black last year, these were comparatively minimal. Interestingly, stocks saw a significant increase this week for no apparent reason.
