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GameStop has been watching the declining fortunes of brick and mortar bookstores over the past several years, and I think it’s safe to say the company’s management knows they are headed down a similar path. The first nod towards acknowledging the problem came just two days ago with the acquisition of Stardock’s Impulse PC distribution platform, along with a second company named Spawn Lab’s which specializes in on-live style streaming. Yesterday GameStop’s CEO Paul Raines detailed his future plans for the new acquisitions, and actually claims that he sees the retailer evolving in into a full-fledged “Technology Company”.
Aside from the obvious branching out to compete with Steam and On-Live, The Dallas Morning News gathered additional details about the company’s plans which include expansion into mobile, and even a GameStop branded tablet. "If we feel like we could do a better job of making a tablet, we'll do that." Since both of these are considered tentative long term goals, it remains to be seen just how serious they are about this “evolution”, or if priorities will change between now and then.
Either way we find it somewhat amusing that GameStop might be forced to rely on PC Gamer’s to pay the bills as next generation consoles ramp up their own proprietary online marketplace capabilities, and they find themselves being slowly squeezed out. Does the acquisition of Impulse make these guys a viable competitor?
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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ProtoJMB
April 05, 2011 at 12:05am
And it's come full circle! The ORIGINAL Electronics Boutique that got absorbed into the Gamestop empire WAS more technology than games. How I miss those good ol days.
JohnP
April 04, 2011 at 12:24pm
Geez, lets see when the last time I went into a GameStop...Hmmm, two years ago maybe? That was just to look for cheap used console games too.
Last time I BOUGHT something from them was probably the midnight visit for what, Halo 2 or maybe a WoW upgrade...
Yeah, I buy a lot of games and I don't buy them from Gamestop anymore. They SHOULD be worried.
Forte125
April 03, 2011 at 2:52pm
At least they are thinking ahead and competing rather than just suing Valve.
tweeve
April 03, 2011 at 9:42pm
actually when buying a game and i have a choice between steam and impulse i normally go and get it off impulse. The advantage of impulse is that I dont need to have impulse running to play my game. The only time I actually start up impulse is to download updates and download new games or redownload games.
