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.

Madden, Batman surprise in August software sales

In what can be considered a bit of a non-shocker, Madden NFL 10 managed to move 1.75 million units in August, followed by Wii Sports Resort and Batman Arkham Asylum. The Xbox 360 version of Madden raked in 928K in unit sales, while the PS3 version managed to sell through about 665K units, followed by the PS2 version which moved about 120K units.

Batman: Arkham Asylum did pretty well on the PS3 and Xbox 360; 303K units of the Xbox 360 version were sold in August followed very closely by 290K units on the PS3. No doubt hardware price cuts that kicked off in August probably helped Batman: Arkham Asylum than Madden did. Full list below:

August 2009 Software Sales:

Madden NFL 10 for Xbox 360, EA - 928,000 units

Wii Sports Resort for Wii, Nintendo - 754,000 units

Madden NFL 10 for PS3, EA - 665,000 units

Batman: Arkham Asylum for Xbox 360, Square Enix - 303,000 units

Batman: Arkham Asylum for PS3, Square Enix - 290,000 units

Madden NFL 10 for PS2, EA - 160,000 units

Dissidia Final Fantasy for PSP, Square Enix - 130,000 units

Wii Fit for Wii, Nintendo - 128,000 units

Mario Kart Wii for Wii, Nintendo - 120,000 units

Fossil Fighters for DS, Nintendo - 92,000 units

Batman: Arkham Asylum tops UK charts

For the second consecutive week, Batman: Arkham Asylum has managed to stay on top of the charts in the United Kingdom, fending off a challenge from Wii Sports Resort and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the All Formats Chart - according to retail sales data from ChartTrack for the week ending Sept. 5, 2009. Despite holding on for dear life, Batman’s latest adventure is not the big winner for the week - Call of duty 4 is. The PS3 version is apparently selling like hotcakes thanks to the low price of the PS3 Slim, which is also selling very well.. Full chart after the break.

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Wii Sports Resort 1 million units sold, says Nintendo data

According to Nintendo’s internal tracking figures, sales of its Wii Sports Resort game have surpassed 1 million copies in the United States since its July 26 launch. Japan and Europe have also sold more than 1 million copies each since the title launched in their respective markets. The collection of 12 resort-themed sports activities is on its way to becoming another long-tail title that sells steadily over an extended period of time as opposed to a single flash on its launch day - or so Nintendo hopes.

Nintendo’s internal sales figures also show that more than 2 million Wii MotionPlus accessories are now in the hands of consumers in the United States. That includes those bundled with Wii Sports Resort and Electronic Arts’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, as well as those sold separately at a suggested retail price of $19.99 each.

Shigeru Miyamoto roundtable notes and Zelda

The big news coming out of the Shigeru Miyamoto  Roundtable Q&A session yesterday was that Nintendo is working on a new Zelda game for the Wii. Apparently it wasn’t quite ready to be shown at e3 this year, but Miyamoto hopes that it will be ready for E3. Kyle Orland, who attended the event, gives us a few more details:

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MotionPlus and Wii Sports Sequel to heat up Nintendo’s Summer

Earlier today, Nintendo released a statement that the new MotionPlus add-on for the Nintendo Wii will be released on June 8th. The MotionPlus accessory “redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space,” according to the product description on Nintendo’s web site. What’s more, the MotionPlus accessory comes out a month and a half before the official launch of Nintendo’s follow-up to its most popular Wii title, Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Sports Resort, a beach-romp themed game, is the follow-up to the system-selling Wii Sports title that was packed in with the system at launch. In this outing, Nintendo promises sword-fighting, frisbee and several other activities. Supposedly, the new MotionPlus will offer a greater level of control. However, we at the Crispy office still think it looks like grown-ups flailing around uncontrollably.