An expected slow-down in console sales knocked two thirds off Game Group‘s January-to-June pre-tax profit – it dipped 67 percent from last year to £10.8 million.
Chair Peter Lewis says that’s because Game clocked up “unprecedented sales of hardware and record breaking software launches” in the same period last year.
And anyway: “We have returned to more normal trading patterns where, historically, we have generated nearly all group profits in the second half of the year.”
— Ecommerce sales from Game.co.uk are up 12.1 percent from last year
— Pre-owned sales (one of Game’s real fortes) are up 12.3 percent to £177.3 million and now account for just over a quarter of group revenue (up 4.4 percent).
— Game’s also added another million reward card members so far this year, up to 13.3 million.
So software sales don’t appear too problematic; Game has just suffered in this period from the drop-off in hardware sales, despite an Xbox price cut and a new-look Playstation 3. Still, with the installed bases for both machines, and Nintendo’s Wii, growing, it’s looking forward to the Christmas period’s game release schedule.