Best Buy Game Sales Slip, GameStop Soars

Despite its recognizable blue-and-gold logo and the popularity of its big box stores across North America, Best Buy does not appear to have emerged from a slow holiday season unscathed. In fact, according to reports released last week, the electronics giant actually posted significant sales losses in one of its most prominent markets.

A report released late last week discussing Best Buy's fiscal month ending January 3 revealed that the company's video game sales had dropped significantly.

According to industry insiders Gamespot, this year's holiday revenue was generally much lower for the company, down "by the mid-single digits" on average. Best Buy's explanations for the drop tend to blame the gaming industry itself -- there were better, newer products on the shelves last year (Nintendo Wii-mania had yet to subside). Moreover, declining sales for "large-ticket" consoles appear to be the primary scapegoat. (Source: gamespot.com)

So, is it the gaming industry that's at fault?

Although the slowing economy is certainly having an effect on the entire tech market, industry analysts NPD Group recently revealed that sales of console games have, on average, increased for most American retailers in the last period. Popular U.S. gaming retailer GameStop posted a startling $2.8 billion in sales during this past holiday season -- a whopping 22 per cent increase over December 2007. (Source: g4tv.com)

While it's possible that Best Buy is merely coming down to earth while other retailers begin to slowly chip away at the big box store's lead, Gamespot forum posters had other ideas. Many, including bgres077, cited Best Buy's prices. "Oh really... that's because they never put anything on sale," bgres077 said. "Funny how that works when people buy things elsewhere because you can find better deals at other stores."

With auction sites like eBay, retailers like Amazon.com, and new online classifieds like Kijiji.com raking in ever-higher page views, it's possible that both Best Buy and eventually GameStop will need to change the way they do business with the techie consumer.

In other words, it's time to start making that trip to the store worthwhile.