A year after being the center of a bizarre stock run, GameStop is back to posting its usual massive losses as gamers everywhere turn away from physical media and towards digital downloads. GameStop CEO Matt Furlong recently gave his end-of-year report to investors and reporters where he noted that the company lost a lot of money in fiscal year 2021.
"The combination of supply chain issues and the omicron variant had a sizable impact on this past year's holiday season," Furlong said (as reported by GameSpot). "We made a conscious decision to lean in and absorb higher costs in order to meet customer demand. We felt, and continue to feel, that investing in our customers and rebuilding our brand loyalty right now is in the company's best interest over the long term."
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That loss amounted to $381 million, by the way, and although you can blame supply chain and pandemic pressures for 2021, that excuse isn’t going to last into 2022 and 2023 even if it remains true.
To help offset those losses, Furlong said that GameStop is making a number of internal changes. First, the company has cut ties with several external consultants that were costing GameStop “millions” annually. Second, GameStop continues its transformation into a "customer-obsessed technology company; one that has wider offerings, more competitive pricing, faster shopping, stronger customer service, and an easier shopping experience."
And third, GameStop is continuing to pivot hard into crypto and NFTs. The company announced the move last spring by opening an NFT-focused homepage with a cat-bananas as its mascot, and just recently GameStop set up a $100 million fund with Immutable to help game devs break into
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