Praising next Xbox? Plays used games after all?
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Leading video games retailer GameStop saw its sales drop seven percent last year, and chief executive J. Paul Raines sees much of the decline attributable to the console cycle itself. With fewer games to sell, the impact is being felt on the used games side as well, but Raines told GamesIndustry International last week following the GameStop earnings call that he's very excited for next-gen, and he's especially eager for Microsoft to take the wraps off its next-gen Xbox.
"We've been spending a lot of time with Microsoft, but we have to let them take the lead on this, but it will be a very hot, compelling device. They are doing some really cool stuff, and I'm eager to hear them start their announcements because I think the world is going to stand up and take notice," Raines commented.
While some in the industry have a negative sentiment towards the console space overall and believe that next-gen consoles simply won't sell the same volume that we've seen in previous cycles, Raines remains optimistic.
"We don't subscribe to that. The cool thing with GameStop is, we've got a lot of gamers here and we've got a lot of people [on the team] who've seen every console cycle. And what's interesting to me - I was talking to one of our founders, Dan DeMatteo, and he was telling me every console cycle you get people who will say 'there will never be another console,' or 'what else can the consoles do?' And we just believe it's a cycle and we just haven't had a new product in so long. But we certainly don't believe that the new consoles won't be as exciting," he said, adding that the nearly 900,000 people who signed up for the "First to Know" list to hear more about the PS4, and the 34 percent of PowerUp Rewards members who expect to buy a PS4 in the next 12 months is proof of the buzz around new consoles. "There's a lot of demand for PS4, and I think there will be for the next Xbox as well, once it's announced."