GameStop: Were excited for PSPgo

GameStop is enthusiastic about the upcoming launch of Sony’s PSPgo, claiming the new handheld will be a profitable source of revenue.

The US retail giant discussed its plans for the new format during its latest quarterly financial call, according to IGN.

The company’s executive vice president of merchandising and marketing Tony Bartel said: We are very excited about selling the PSPgo. We are very excited to be reserving it; reserves are picking up. And we have a very clear roadmap as to how we can drive profitability on the sale of games.”

This is in direct contrast to several UK retailers, who recently told MCV about their reservations concerning the device’s high price point and focus on digitally distributed products.

However, Bartel is confident the GameStop will make additional profits on the PSPgo, through points cards, such as the recently announced PlayStation Network Voucher Cards. He also believes the handheld could drive the pre-owned business.

We do participate in the downstream revenue via both the POSA (point of sale activation) cards and through points cards,” he said. The good news about that is we hold a very dominant market position in both of those categories as it relates to digital downloaded games.”

It will also be a strong contributor to our trade-in process, where you have people with UMD games that will no longer work on that platform that will fuel additional currency for GameStop.”