During GameStop’s financial conference call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, the retailer’s executives gave more information on their partnership with Sony and on their expectations for upcoming PlayStation products.
We learn that the last time PlayStation VR was put up for pre-order, it had the “quickest sellout in GameStop’s history,” with the retailer running out of allocation “literally in five minutes.” According to GameStop there is “tremendous demand.”
According to the retailer, Sony has taken virtual reality “very seriously, as a very meaningful driver.”
That said, to a further question, it was answered that the quantities for PlayStation VR during the fall season are expected to be “very limited.”
About PlayStation VR’s launch, Chief Operating Officer Tony Bartel shared that it’s complex and expensive, and in this kind of case GameStop tends to have an additional allocation of units because they can offer trade credit, the “first to know” list, pre-order benefits and the Power-Up rewards credits.
Chief Financial Officer Robert Loyd added that Sony has been in and out of GameStop’s offices many times in the past few weeks, and they’re looking at the retailer’s list of Power-Up members that own a PS4, thinking on how to promote to those people.
As a result, GameStop executives think they are a “very powerful launch partner” for Sony and others, but Sony is the most important because they have “a lot of installed base.”
PlayStation Neo was also mentioned, and we hear that GameStop did include the new console in its predictions for the fiscal year, but “in a very light form” as not much is known about it, and the retailer expects to learn more on September 7th.
The PS5 Exists.
