GameStop to take on iPad by reselling an existing Android gaming tablet

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Video game retailer GameStop has decided to sell a store-branded version of an existing Android tablet as its vehicle for expanding into App Store-like game downloads now dominated by Apple's iPad.



According to a report by Games Industry, GameStop will begin selling an existing Android tablet next year preloaded with games and capable of downloading new titles from the company.



Last month GameStop reported that its sales were down 3.1 percent in its second quarter, while profits were down 23 percent. Digital downloads were up 69 percent however, now representing 41.7 percent of the company's revenues, a shift that chief executive Paul Raines described as a "challenging period for the industry."



The gaming retailer announced plans back in April to develop or rebrand a gaming tablet after acquiring Stardock's Impulse digital distribution service.



Gamestop's 6,500 retail outlets bring in nearly half (46.2 percent) of their revenues from the resale of used video games and hardware, but its president Tony Bartel noted this spring that "we really don't anticipate we're going to have a model [for digital] where people can trade a game back in."



Bartel said at the time his company was looking into gaming tablets, noting that "if we can't find one that's great for gaming, then we will create our own." The company also began experimenting with a limited tablet and smartphone trade in program, which it recently expanded to include Apple's iPods, iPhone, and iPad.



Stagnant market for games outside of App Store



However, Apple owns the entire software resale market for native iOS apps, leaving no option for retailers like GameStop (or Amazon) to sell or resell iOS titles outside of web apps. Apple's App Store, like the rest of iTunes, is aimed to run near break even. However, this spring iSuppli reported that in 2010, Apple's App Store had revenues of $1.78 billion and had grown by 132 percent over 2009.



Outside of Apple's iOS ecosystem, NPD Group has just reported (blogged by VG24/7) that sales of video game hardware, software and accessories has slid 23 percent year over year for August, with hardware sales down 12 percent, accessories down 1 percent, but game software down 34 percent. NPD noted that "videogame sales in the new physical retail channel suffered its lowest month since October 2006."



The drop in software sales in August was exaggerated by the late release of Madden Football, but NPD observed that even with an anticipated strong release schedule during the important upcoming holiday season, sales for all of 2011 are only expected to be flat or up slightly over last year.



Stagnant market for Android hardware outside of smartphones



A secondary problem facing GameStop is that Android-powered devices haven't fared well outside of smartphones. Samsung's initiative to copy Apple's iPod touch with its Galaxy Player (below, as depicted on Samsung's site) last December has appeared to fizzle after an initial press release in March claiming sales of 20,000 units in ten days.







Samsung's iPad-like Galaxy Tab was similarly ridiculed by Lenovo for selling only 20,000 units, and similar or more modern Android tablets like Motorola's Xoom have also found only limited interest in the market.



Many Android enthusiasts are expecting the best sales reports to come from Amazon's upcoming Android-based Kindle, but that device will be tied to Amazon's own software store much like Apple's iPad is limited to the App Store, or as Barnes & Noble's Nook is connected to that company's own software market. That means sales of the low cost Nook or Kindle will do little to help develop third party Android markets like GameStop's.



The market for Android tablets is shaping up as a series of devices tied to proprietary stores, likely in response to the failure of Google to provide a safe, well regulated market for Android software, and the destructive effect that piracy and malware republishing has had on alternative open Android software stores.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 38
    I wonder how Apple will respond to that? Allowing GameStop to sell iPads next to their own branded competitor (opening up favorable comparisons for said competitor) doesn't like an Apple move.
  • Reply 2 of 38
    Kind of amusing since there was a corporate email to the managers that we're going to start selling iDevices. Some stores are already authorized to take iDevices in as trade (my store being one), and we should start getting new merchandise in late October/early November to sell.
  • Reply 3 of 38
    Soon every Safeway, every 7-eleven, every Circle K, every Walmart, and every Tom, Dick and Harry will sell their own Android tablet. What a total waste of time and money. This is the problem with our world, nobody acts rationally. Just throwing your logo on a tablet won't make it sell. Apple is selling millions of iPads not simply because it's a tablet, but due to the ecosystem around it and the fact that Apple makes it sexy.



    Yah, a GameStop branded tablet is really going to go somewhere. NOT!
  • Reply 4 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AZREOSpecialist View Post


    Soon every Safeway, every 7-eleven, every Circle K, every Walmart, and every Tom, Dick and Harry will sell their own Android tablet. What a total waste of time and money. This is the problem with our world, nobody acts rationally. Just throwing your logo on a tablet won't make it sell. Apple is selling millions of iPads not simply because it's a tablet, but due to the ecosystem around it and the fact that Apple makes it sexy.



    Yah, a GameStop branded tablet is really going to go somewhere. NOT!



    This ^^^
  • Reply 5 of 38
    Desperate times require Desperate measures. However, the answer seems to come from Disparate minds.
  • Reply 6 of 38
    See http://9to5google.com/2011/09/12/com...mobile-gamers/



    This could be a smart move by GameStop.
  • Reply 7 of 38
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by derekmorr View Post


    See http://9to5google.com/2011/09/12/com...mobile-gamers/



    This could be a smart move by GameStop.



    Android is number one for gamers? That's quite a surprise.
  • Reply 8 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AZREOSpecialist View Post


    Soon every Safeway, every 7-eleven, every Circle K, every Walmart, and every Tom, Dick and Harry will sell their own Android tablet. What a total waste of time and money. This is the problem with our world, nobody acts rationally. Just throwing your logo on a tablet won't make it sell. Apple is selling millions of iPads not simply because it's a tablet, but due to the ecosystem around it and the fact that Apple makes it sexy.



    Yah, a GameStop branded tablet is really going to go somewhere. NOT!



    You have no idea how many people buy apple products with little reason other then it is from apple. So many people have told me their mac is better then my gaming rig just because it is a Mac.
  • Reply 9 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by derekmorr View Post


    See http://9to5google.com/2011/09/12/com...mobile-gamers/



    This could be a smart move by GameStop.



    Fanboy much?
  • Reply 10 of 38
    jexusjexus Posts: 373member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post


    Android is number one for gamers? That's quite a surprise.



    Really? I wasn't.



    R-type port available

    MAME emulator(with 2000 games and counting)

    NES emulators

    SNES emulators

    Master system emulators

    Genesis emulators

    N64 emulators

    PS1 emulators



    and to top it all off, not being limited by the Market itself so they can go explore and Still get modern games on from the tegra/non tegra devs?



    No surprise at all.
  • Reply 11 of 38
    I refuse to buy anything from Game Stop. With Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart there is NO reason to pre-order or buy new games there.



    Game Stop is evil and if you want to sell your game back a week later just use Game Fly.
  • Reply 12 of 38
    Wow- this is a really good move by Gamestop! This will give consumers the selection that they nee.... I can't even get through the sentence without laughing...
  • Reply 13 of 38
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Hahaha, only a complete retard or somebody who was dropped on their head when they were an infant would buy one of these gamestop android tablets.
  • Reply 14 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jexus View Post


    Really? I wasn't.



    R-type port available

    MAME emulator(with 2000 games and counting)

    NES emulators

    SNES emulators

    Master system emulators

    Genesis emulators

    N64 emulators

    PS1 emulators



    and to top it all off, not being limited by the Market itself so they can go explore and Still get modern games on from the tegra/non tegra devs?



    No surprise at all.



    There's a reason some of those games/emulators aren't available on an iOS device... Most of them suck and weren't worth buying to begin with when the came out originally.



    You can have all the hemorrhoid you can handle.



    Look at who is selling games... It isn't hemorrhoid, it's Apple.
  • Reply 15 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jexus View Post


    NES emulators

    SNES emulators

    Master system emulators

    Genesis emulators

    N64 emulators

    PS1 emulators



    No surprise at all.



    What's that? An OS that allows the use of software designed to play pirated games is leading in gaming?



    Honestly, people who play ROMs of games rarely own them.
  • Reply 16 of 38
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by derekmorr View Post


    See http://9to5google.com/2011/09/12/com...mobile-gamers/



    This could be a smart move by GameStop.



    I wonder how much of that other 32% are using iOS on iPads and iPod touch's?



    Android vs iPhone != Android vs iOS.
  • Reply 17 of 38
    Gamestopb is toast. It is just a matter of time before their business model gets blown out the water:
  • Reply 18 of 38
    I'm still trying to understand why everyone is repeating the expectation that an Amazon-branded Android tablet will seduce the masses. It doesn't exist yet. It's like everyone was saying that Android tablets would own the iPad and before that, it was people predicting the iPad would fail because there was no tablet market. Tech sites are just echo chambers.
  • Reply 19 of 38
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jexus View Post


    Really? I wasn't.



    R-type port available

    MAME emulator(with 2000 games and counting)

    NES emulators

    SNES emulators

    Master system emulators

    Genesis emulators

    N64 emulators

    PS1 emulators



    and to top it all off, not being limited by the Market itself so they can go explore and Still get modern games on from the tegra/non tegra devs?



    No surprise at all.



    So let me guess, GameStop will cash in by selling ROM's for these emulators?



    Wow, pretty soon they'll be rolling in the big bucks.
  • Reply 20 of 38
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Obi-Wan Kubrick View Post


    I refuse to buy anything from Game Stop. With Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart there is NO reason to pre-order or buy new games there.



    Game Stop is evil and if you want to sell your game back a week later just use Game Fly.



    Agreed. If I did, I'd have to report them to the Better Business Bureau for being slime balls.
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