Gamestop names mobile and online gaming as threat

A recent financial filing from US retailer Gamestop has highlighted the the dangers that mobile and online gaming pose to its business, and has suggested Gamestop is currently looking for ways to take advantage of them.

"Gaming continues to evolve rapidly. The popularity of browser, mobile and social gaming has increased greatly and this popularity is expected to continue to grow," said the statement, buried in the company's latest 10-K filing.

"Browser, mobile and social gaming is accessed through hardware other than the consoles and traditional hand-held video game devices we currently sell. If we are unable to respond to this growth in popularity of browser, mobile and social games and transition our business to take advantage of these new forms of gaming, our financial position and results of operations could suffer."

"The company has been and is currently pursuing various strategies to integrate these new forms of gaming into the company's business model, but we can provide no assurances that these strategies will be successful or profitable."

It's all fairly obvious stuff to anyone with one eye on the industry, but underlines the very real pressure that dedicated retailers are feeling as iOS and free-to-play games dominate the casual market.

The document also made clear the importance of the games hardware manufacturers, and their continued cooperation and marketing efforts, to the future of the company and revealed that Sony was currently its most valuable partner.

"Our largest vendors worldwide are Sony, Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft and Electronic Arts, which accounted for 17 per cent, 16 per cent, 14 per cent, 13 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, of our new product purchases in fiscal 2012."

Last week the company's Q4 financial reports revealed it made a loss of $269.7 million in fiscal year 2012.