It was announced during a March investor brief that GameStop, the world's largest gaming retailer, would be closing 300 stores across the United States. Now, that number has jumped to over 400.
A recent investor call with GameStop revealed that the retailer would be closing 100 more stores than was originally planned, bumping the number of store closings up from over 300 to around 450.
On this same call, GameStop's Chief Financial Officer, Jim Bell, alluded that even more stores would continue to close well into 2021. GameStop currently has over 5,500 operational store locations in the US.
GameStop was one of many companies affected by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, with stores closing temporarily across the country, which sent the retailer into financial instability. The pandemic continues to affect any plans to maintain GameStop’s physical storefronts.
Most of the company’s financial recovery has relied on the sale of next-gen consoles as well as games purchased online. Despite the fact that online sales have increased by 800%, this was still much less than the expectations determined by analysts. According to a previous report by CBR in March, GameStop had suffered a net loss for the fiscal year of $470.9 million, which was a marked improvement from its 2019 net loss of $673 million.
(Via IGN)