GameStop Reveals Xbox One Sales 'Underperformed' in Q2; Xbox One X Launch Might Have Affected It
One of the leading electronics retailers in the United States has revealed it saw a decrease in the sales of Xbox One consoles, and the approaching Xbox One X retail release could be one of the reasons why it happened.
GameStop held their Q2 2017 earnings call recently and discussed how the major consoles in the market performed. Unfortunately for Microsoft, GameStop's sales showed that Sony's PlayStation 4 had performed much better than the Xbox One both in the brand new and pre-owned sales.
GameStop Chief Financial Officer Robert Lloyd explained (via Seeking Alpha): "In both new and pre-owned, we're seeing underperformance in Xbox One versus PS4, which we believe is due to the coming Xbox One X launch."
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Meanwhile, Lloyd also stated that the sales of pre-owned Xbox One and PS4 have generally gone down by 7.5 percent for the covered quarter of the earnings call. In effect, the underperforming sales of pre-owned Xbox One have affected GameStop's software sales.
GameStop Chief Operating Officer Tony Bartel further explained during the earnings call: "Our pre-owned sales lagged software sales by four points due to strong new Switch software sales."
On the other hand, the Xbox One X is reportedly doing a good job in the market so far since Microsoft has opened pre-orders for the upcoming console.
In a statement, Microsoft declared that the Xbox One X is their "fastest-selling Xbox pre-order ever."
Back to GameStop's earnings call, the company agreed that the "powerful new console" is getting a huge support from buyers since pre-orders were accepted.
"We also just started taking preorders on the Xbox One X this week. And while it's still early, we are pleased with the initial consumer response to this powerful new console," Bartel stated.
In other related news, reports have it that Microsoft is closing the curtains for the Xbox One console. According to The Verge, the Xbox One has since been removed from Microsoft's United States online store while the console is tagged as "sold out" in the United Kingdom's online store.
