As the market for physical discs or cartridges with games on them goes away, that leaves mall retailer GameStop without much of anything to sell. Fortunately, the company was able to see this change coming, and is pursuing business in two directions that are related to gaming in indirect ways: selling the mobile phones and tablets where most people play games, and selling geeky merchandise that often features video game characters. Now the company is expanding its mobile empire even farther.
GameStop announced today that it has acquired an additional 507 stores that sell AT&T and Cricket devices and service. These are AT&T authorized retailer stores that belong to the former chains Cellular World, Midwest Cellular, and Red Skye Wireless. Bloomberg notes that most of the new locations are in Texas, which happens to be the state where the company is based.
The new acquisitions give GameStop a total of 1,421 mobile stores, all of which sell AT&T brands. Technically, though, all of its stores are mobile phone stores: even in the game stores, you can pick up a phone from AT&T’s Cricket Wireless prepaid brand. The company also owns Simply Mac, a chain of Apple retailers that have stores in markets too small for an official Apple Store.
Even as more of its business doesn’t directly involve games, GameStop plans to keep its name true to its roots. (Hey, it worked for RadioShack. Mostly.) Selling phones and tablets is also a better long-term strategy than establishing Pokéstops.
GameStop Acquires 507 AT&T Stores in Diversification Plan [Bloomberg]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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