14 DAY TRIAL // Retail chain GameStop says that half of the players who use its stores to purchase digital content and add-ons are first-time customers, which shows that there’s a significant group of players who relies on brick and mortar stores even as companies talk about a fully digital future.
Brad Schliesser, the director of digital content at GameStop, tells Gamasutra that, “I always believed if all we did was take customers who were shopping at the Microsoft storefront or the PlayStation storefront and make them our customers, that doesn't benefit the whole. If we were going to be a significant player in the content market, we had to widen the pie.”
65 percent of the digital revenue for the company is linked to the Microsoft-made Xbox 360 and about 28 to 30% is linked to the PlayStation 3.
Less than 10 percent of gamers use GameStop in order to buy Steam content and GameStop wants to create a welcoming environment for players who do not want to share financial data online.