GameStop’s Q3 results buoyed by hit game sales

While other companies are screaming that the sky is falling, retailer GameStop said Thursday that sales of hot game titles helped boost its third-quarter profits by nearly 12 percent and offset a sales decline for video game hardware in the quarter. These profits just barely helped the company beat Wall Street expectations. Excluding costs, GameStop’s operating profit of 32 cents per share beat a forecast of 30 cents per share.

Net earnings for the quarter that ended on Oct. 13 were $52.2 million - 31 cents per share, up from a profit of $46.7 million - 28 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Sales in the quarter climbed 8.2 percent to $1.83 billion; analysts estimated $1.73 billion. A year ago the company raked in $1.7 billion.

Sales of new software rose 9.4 percent, and sales of used products jumped 19 percent. These gains helped offset a decline in sales of new video game hardware. But sales at stores open at least a year, which is considered a measure of a retailer’s financial health — fell 7.8 percent. That’s in line with forecast the company offered last week - a decline of 6 - 11 percent.

So what games pulled GameStop’s fanny out of the fire this quarter? According to the company, Madden NFL 10, Halo 3: ODST, Batman: Arkham Asylum, NBA 2K10 and Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide in its first 72 hours of release as well.

For the fourth quarter, GameStop expects a profit of $1.47 - $1.65 per share; analysts forecast Q4 profits at $1.57.

The Sims 3 rules UK retail charts

The Sims 3 and Red Faction Guerrilla have managed usurp the top two spots on the UK charts from UFC 2009: Undisputed and Pokémon Platinum, pushing Nintendo’s popular Pokémon title to number 7 on the charts, and THQ’s fighting game to number 3. This is according to retail sales data from UK based research firm Elsa’s Chart Track.

EA Sports Active fell on spot top number 4, while Wii Fit moved up one spot to number 5 and InFamous fell by one spot as well. Rounding out this week’s top ten were the aforementioned Pokémon Platinum at number 7, followed by Guitar Hero: Metallica, Virtua Tennis 2009 (being released in North America this week) and Terminator Salvation. Top twenty for the week ending June 6, 2009 can be found below:

All Formats - Week Ending June 6, 2009

1 THE SIMS 3 - EA GAMES (new)
2 RED FACTION: GUERRILLA - THQ (new)
3 UFC 2009: UNDISPUTED THQ (last week #1)
4 EA SPORTS ACTIVE - EA SPORTS (last week #3)
5 WII FIT - NINTENDO (last week #6)
6 INFAMOUS - SONY COMPUTER ENT. (last week #5)
7 POKEMON PLATINUM - NINTENDO (last week #2)
8 GUITAR HERO: METALLICA - REDOCTANE (last week #4)
9 VIRTUA TENNIS 2009 - SEGA (last week #8)
10 TERMINATOR SALVATION - EVOLVED GAMES (last week #11)
11 FIFA 09 - EA SPORTS (last week #7)
12 FUEL - CODEMASTERS - (new)
13 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE - ACTIVISION (last week #13)
14 MARIO KART WII - NINTENDO (last week #12)
15 SACRED 2: FALLEN ANGEL - DEEP SILVER (new)
16 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR - ACTIVISION (last week #15)
17 MY FITNESS COACH - GAMES FOR EVERYONE (last week #16)
18 STAR OCEAN: THE LAST HOPE - SQUARE ENIX (new)
19 WII PLAY - NINTENDO (last week #10)
20 MYSTERY STORIES - GSP/AVANQUEST (new)

Top Selling Games of February

While Wii Fit moved 644,000 units in February, it was Street Fighter IV the truly topped the retail in North America for the month, according to retail sales data from NPD Group. Combined sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Capcom’s latest beat ‘em up were 849,000 units during the month beating out everything else in the month’s top ten. Also having a good showing in February was SCEA’s Killzone 2 for the PS3, Wii Play and Call of Duty World at War. Despite some stand outs, Nintendo continued to dominate most of the top ten with various first and third-party DS and Wii titles. Here’s the list:

Top 10 Games, February 2009

1. Wii Fit w/ Balance Board - (Wii) 644,000 Units
2. Street Fighter IV - (Xbox 360) 446,000 Units
3. Street Fighter IV - (PS3) 403,000 Units
4. Wii Play w/ Remote - (Wii) 386,000 Units
5. Killzone 2 - (PS3) 323,000 Units
6. Wii Mario Kart with wheel - (Wii) 263,000 Units
7. Call of Duty: World at War - (Xbox 360) 193,000 Units
8. Mario Kart DS - (DS) 145,000 Units
9. New Super Mario Bros - (DS) 144,000 Units
10. Guitar Hero World Tour - (Wii) 136,000 Units

Killzone 2 Tops UK Charts

Killzone 2 is blazing up the charts in the UK with the PS3 exclusive landing at the number one spot for the week ending Feb 28th, 2009 - according to retail sales data from ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack’s All Formats Top 40. Killzone 2 managed to beat out Halo Wars, which debuted at the number 2 spot, knocking Street Fighter IV to number three for the week, which in turn helped push Wii Fit to the number four spot.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the DS, The Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, FIFA 09, Call of Duty: World at War, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Mario Kart Wii filled out the rest of the chart for the week. Silent Hill: Homecoming debuted at number eleven, just missing the top ten and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II took a dramatic nose dive off the top ten to land at the 18th best selling position for the week.

ELSPA GfK-ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 - Week Ending Feb 28th:
1. Killzone 2 (Sony)
2. Halo Wars (Microsoft)
3. Street Fighter IV (Capcom)
4. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
5. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo)
6. Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (Sega)
7. FIFA 09 (EA)
8. Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard)
9. Ben 10: Alien Force (D3P)
10. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)

Japanese Hardware Sales: Feb. 16 - 22, 2009

Media Create has released hard sales numbers for the week of Feb. 16 - 22, 2009 with the Xbox 360 continuing to shock the Japanese market thanks to the Square Enix’s Star Ocean: The Last Hope. While Microsoft’s console continues do well, it’s not beating out the DSi or the PSP - despite both platforms off from the prior week’s sales.

The DSi moved nearly 42k units, the PSP nearly 30K and the Xbox 360 slightly over 25K. The Wii was down 19 percent to nearly 17K, followed by the PS3 at around 16K, the DS Lite at nearly 10K and the good old PS2 at a little over 5K. Exact numbers with percentages below:

1. DSi: 41,839 Units (- 21.77 percent)
2. PSP: 29,552 Units (- 13.73 percent)
3. Xbox 360: 25,334 Units (+ 157.64 percent)
4. Wii: 16,973 Units (19.24 percent)
5. PS3: 16,149 Units 2,507 (13.44 percent)
6. DS Lite: 9,975 Units (- 32.65 percent)
7. PS2: 5,029 Units (- 5.68 percent)

EA, Activision Dominate Jan. PC Charts

NPD Group retail numbers are in for January 2008, and while we don’t have a head count for the number of units sold, it appears that Activision and Electronic Arts continue to dominate the top twenty in North America. Activision had 9 of the top twenty games in January with various The Sims 2 and Spore products, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 - and Left 4 Dead which it distributes for Valve Software.

Activision had six titles on January’s charts including a number of World of Warcraft products, Call Of Duty: World At War and the StarCraft Battle Chest.

Bethesda’s Fallout 3 managed to break in to the top ten, and Take-Two’s Civilization IV landed at number twelve. the rest of the top twenty was comprised of budget titles like PopCap’s Bejeweled Twist, Masque Publishing’s IGT Slots: Little Green Men, and Phantom EFX’s Reel Deal Slots BlackBeard’s Revenge. Full list after the jump

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Microsoft: 28 Million Xbox 360 Units Sold To Date

Microsoft announced Monday that Xbox 360 sales have topped 28 million units sold since the system’s launch in 2005. The company also announced that Xbox Live now has 17 million active members. Spending on Xbox Live was also up a massive 84 percent from a period a year ago. All of these numbers come ahead of the tally for December sales from NPD Group.

Microsoft also doubled its market share in Japan, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Finally, Microsoft said that Xbox Live had the busiest week in its history during the period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, with more than 1.4 million members online at one time. Hopefully these internal numbers match up to the official numbers from NPD later this week.