GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME), the largest multichannel video game and entertainment software retailer worldwide, estimates that there are 2.3 million customers waiting for the PlayStation 4 consoles from Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758).
During its conference call with analysts today, GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) said initial sales of the PS4 outperformed sales of the PS3 by more than 80% during the first several days. The video game retailer also expects that there will be a huge waiting list for Xbox One.
GameStop sales hinged to climbing PlaySation
According to GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME), any lingering sales weakness in the game industry will end.
Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) recently announced that it sold more than one million PS4 consoles in Canada and the United States within the first hours of its availability in the market. A spokesperson for PlayStation said the figure included some of the PS4 units that were pre-sold on a global basis by the Japanese company.
Microsoft selling game consoles in 13 countries
The PS4 console at $399 is cheaper than the Xbox One with a $499 price tag. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will start selling its game console in 13 countries. Observers in the game industry expect high consumer demand for the Xbox One.
Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert Baird & Co., opined that GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) will benefit from the game console transition based on its ability to attract consumers who trade in older titles and hardware for discounts on a device. GameStop accounts for more than 50% of the sales of video game software sales from Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
GameStop stock price
Stock price for GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) declined 6.56% to $49 per share despite reporting third quarter financial results that beat the consensus estimates of Wall Street analysts. The company posted $0.58 earnings per share on $2.11 billion revenue. The decline was due to GameStops’ lower fourth quarter EPS guidance of $1.97 to $2.14 compared with the $2.15 consensus estimate. The mid-point of the guidance provided by the company for the full year 2013 in the range of $3.08 to $3.25 per share is also lower than the average estimate of $3.23 a share.
