Everyone knows of the game store giant Gamestop and their declining business given the impact the digital distribution model that has dominated the market over the last decade. Starting with Steam alone, as well as all of the other digital platforms, Gamestop has lost millions of potential dollars that could have gone to the near monopolistic company.
Gamestop leaders, however, have a different idea for the future of the company. They believe that the resale of used and outdated games will maintain their physical storefronts and as well as their online portal, Kongregate. This may not be able to push them to the top of the digital distribution charts but it will help them get started. In order to give them an edge however, they’re going to need something big. As it so happens, Gamestop has something big just over the horizon, a PC streaming service in an attempt to dislodge the digital giant Steam.
As of now however, it seams that the company isn’t progressing as quickly as they may have liked. Only about 3% of $9.473 billion dollars of revenue in 2010 came from digital sales and as of the end of the 2011 fiscal period they only increased to 4.7%. So what this means though is that, as long as they are able to maintain the rate they are growing over the next few years or so, we could see a contender that can compete with Steam for our digital purchases. A mighty feat however, given Steam’s colossal following.
Would you transition to a Gamestop backed digital platform or stay with the standby, Steam?