Kinect, Black Ops push GameStop to record holiday

While most of its stores braced for wintry weather outside, GameStop found its sales heating up considerably this holiday season. The specialty retailer today reported a record holiday haul with across-the-board increases in new and used software, hardware, and accessories.

For the last nine weeks of 2010, GameStop reported sales of $3.02 billion, up 5.4 percent from 2009's total of $2.86 billion, which was about the same amount garnered during the 2008 holidays. The retailer cited Microsoft's Kinect as one major contributing factor, saying the Xbox 360's motion-sensing camera peripheral pushed new hardware sales up 7.4 percent to $670 million for the period. The PlayStation Move also received a nod from GameStop, as the PlayStation 3 motion-sensing controller was attributed--along with Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm--as helping push the retailer's accessories, PC games, and miscellaneous category up 15.9 percent to nearly $405 million.

New software sales were also strong for the retailer, up 3.3 percent to $1.34 billion. GameStop said the growth was driven primarily by strong showings from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles, with Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood singled out for praise. Used game sales were the slowest-growing segment of the business, up 1.7 percent to nearly $607 million.

While GameStop's figures showed growth, they didn't show enough to please investors. As of press time, shares in GameStop were trading down more than 5 percent to $20.79. The retailer's full-year sales data is expected to be released in mid-March.