"You're asking me to... predict the future. I'm supposed to plan for the future." That's the non-answer GameStop president Tony Bartel spit out when I prodded him about the company's digital strategy here at its annual consumer-facing EXPO in Las Vegas. And it's clearly a touchy subject. It's not that Bartel refuses to acknowledge and embrace a download-only world -- indeed, he believes "things are going to go [fully] digital" -- but in his own estimation, that shift isn't tied to the next-gen of consoles. For a retailer built upon the buy/sell/trade business model for videogames and hardware, GameStop doesn't appear to have a well-laid digital strategy in the works, nor does it necessarily need to at the moment. With both Sony and Microsoft committing to a friendly used disc-based games policy for their respective black boxes, GameStop's been given a temporary buffer from the inevitable, allowing it additional time to feel out the digital way forward with a serendipitous mobile crutch.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Software, HD, Mobile, Sony, Microsoft
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