Despite losing $270 million in fiscal 2012, US video games retailer GameStop remains optimistic about the future. CFO Rob Lloyd recently spoke about the numbers they’ve been doing, and most especially responded to analyst’s queries about the disappointing nature of Wii sales.
“The Wii U actually exceeded our expectations at launch. We were actually out of stock early on in the launch period. However, it has been disappointing since the beginning of the year.”
When it comes to new gameplay and nature of the Wii U GamePad, he feels that “the marketing has not broken through at the level that it needs to. I think we still have an education process that we need to go through.”
Of course, as always, the main problem lies with software. “More importantly, I think where you’re really going to see Wii U take off is when there is a strong first-party title. That’s what we’ve always seen, and the fact that we launched without a strong first-party title, I think we’re seeing the ramifications of that today.
“Those are two things we do expect to be remedied later on in this year. There’s no doubt the launch was strong for us, but it has been disappointing since the first of the year.”
Of course, the retailer still believes that “there’s lots of opportunity for that platform still.”
Source: GIBiz