Analysts Argue Against GameStop’s Star Wars and Halo Results

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Various industry analysts have disputed GameStop’s recent assessments of the disappointing sales performances of Star Wars: Battlefront and Halo 5.

GameStop’s executives were left unsatisfied by the number of copies of the two blockbuster games, which were tipped to be some of the biggest games of the year.

Julian Paul Raines, GameStop’s CEO, said that the sales figures not only failed to meet initial estimates, but also fell short of their adjusted expectations.

However, an analyst from the financial services firm Wedbush—Michael Pachter—said that GameStop failed to recognise the potential sales pattern that Star Wars: Battlefront would sell by.

Speaking to CNBC, Pachter called Battlefront a “gift game,” a factor that GameStop’s expectations did not take into account. He argued that only a portion of Battlefront’s sales would be accrued around release date, and a significant proportion of sales would be purchased around Christmas. The game will also likely see a boost in sales around the release of new film The Force Awakens.

This, he claimed, is why the game has not yet sold as highly as expected by GameStop’s executives.

Additionally, GameStop were also surprised that Halo 5 did not sell as many digital copies as normal, which has also been disputed by analysts.

GameStop’s chief financial officer claimed that Halo 5’s digital sales totalled at a roughly average number of 20-25% of the game’s total sales.

It was reported by Gamespot, however, that industry analysts believe that Halo 5 sold roughly half of its units in the digital domain. Doug Creutz, of Cowen & Company, claims that insider industry information runs contrary to GameStop’s numbers. He said that GameStop’s reasons for the low digital sales did not match with information given by NPD and Microsoft’s press releases.

GameStop saw its profits fall by 11.4% in the quarter ending 31st October 2015. Of course such mistakes do not help to improve the lower than expected performance by the company, which seems to be having rough times recently.