GAME: Black Friday is going nowhere

The price war that erupted in the games market before Christmas may have hurt GAME’s bottom line, but the retailer says it won’t be backing away from Black Friday.

Last year’s Black Friday saw major games and consoles cut by as much as 40 per cent, and GAME felt the brunt of the discounting, issuing a profit warning in January and posting a decline in profits for the 26 weeks ending January 24th.

Yet CEO Martyn Gibbs said that although there were lessons the business will continue to partake in future Black Friday events.

Anybody that is saying they can hold back Black Friday is foolish,” he told MCV. Consumer appetite for Black Friday is here to stay. There are learnings in terms of how to manage it differently next time around. But we look at Black Friday as a big opportunity going forward.”

GAME also cited the aggressive bundling as harming its revenue potential, and said that it’s this that has meant the market has got off to a slow start in 2015.

New releases are performing well. Battlefield Hardline performed slightly above our forecast. But in terms of the back catalogue and chart titles, with so much good content given away with consoles last Christmas, that has been softer than we expected,” he said.

GAME’s financial performance has also been impacted by a smaller-than-expected line-up of games, particularly earlier in the year.

I’ve been saying for years that I would rather have one big title a month, rather than everything coming at peak,” said Gibbs.