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GameStop Corp posted quarterly revenue and profit well below analysts’ estimates as the delayed release of “Assassin’s Creed Unity, ” and flagging videogame software sales more than offset high demand for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles.
Shares of the world’s largest retailer of video game products fell 11 percent in extended trading after it also lowered the upper end of its full-year profit forecast on Thursday.
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Release of “Assassin’s Creed Unity, ” developed by France’s Ubisoft Entertainment SA , was delayed by about two weeks and hit stores in North America only on Nov. 11.
GameStop narrowed its fiscal 2014 earnings forecast to $3.40-$3.55 per share from $3.40-$3.70.
Sales of new game software fell 34.4 percent in the quarter as year-ago period included hit games such as Grand Theft Auto V and Battlefield 4.
Games such as “Destiny” and “The Evil Within, ” which were launched in October, sold 42 percent fewer units, compared with a year earlier, market research firm NPD said in an e-mail.
“I would anticipate that we will begin to see software growth as early as the fourth quarter and definitely in the first quarter of next year, ” President Tony Bartel said.
Sales of older games, however, continued to drop.
“There was a 58 percent Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware and software that we experienced year-to-date which is greater than what we anticipated, ” Bartel said.
Sales of new hardware jumped 147.4 percent, driven by demand for Sony Corp’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One.
“These consoles have had a great start as cumulative sales are currently over 70 percent higher than the combined first year totals of Xbox 360 and PS3, ” the NDP report said.
GameStop’s net income dropped to $56.4 million, or 50 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Nov. 1, from $68.6 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 57 cents per share.
The Grapevine, Texas-based company’s revenue fell to $2.09 billion from $2.11 billion.
Analysts on average had expected revenue of $2.2 billion of profit of 61 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
