GameStop holiday sales up nearly 35 percent

The final stretch of the year is far and away the biggest for the gaming industry as retailers cash in on the holiday one-two punch of big-name releases and rabid customer demand. The recent holiday season was no exception, given that specialty retailer GameStop today reported that its revenues for the last nine weeks of 2007 were up sharply over the same period of 2006.

For the nine weeks ended January 5, 2008, GameStop revenues totaled more than $2.3 billion, nearly 35 percent higher than the $1.7 billion brought in for the end of 2006. New software sales were responsible for more than 43 percent of that total, with new hardware accounting for 26 percent, and used products racking up 18 percent of the chain's revenue.

According to GameStop, the five best-selling games for the holidays were Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, and Super Mario Galaxy. Hardware sold well all the way around, and GameStop chairman and CEO R. Richard Fontaine said in a statement that he was particularly pleased with sellouts on the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable systems.

Given the holiday results, GameStop also bumped up its earnings-per-share guidance for the full fiscal year. In November the company forecast earnings per share between $1.61 and $1.63, but in light of the holiday sales, the retailer has bumped the range up to $1.75 to $1.76.

GameStop expects to release its figures for the full quarter and the full fiscal year in mid-March.