With downloadable content becoming as big of a deal as it is these days, I have often wondered what GameStop was going to do about it. How does a physical retailer get in on the sweet business of selling stuff to people in their own homes? By selling the same digital wares from within its own turf.
The specifics are a little sketchy still, but one thing is for sure: GameStop plans to eventually sell DLC in-store on a large scale. During an earnings call, COO J. Paul Raines discussed the next phase in the plan for world domination.
“We’ve had to create proprietary point of sale technology in partnership with Microsoft to be able to show that DLC catalog at retail,” explains Raines. “We’re also working on merchandising and marketing the DLC content in our stores.”
The program is set to launch in spring at 35 GameStop locations with a “limited catalog” and will then expand nationwide sometime this fall. In a perfect world, expanding the audience of DLC buyers (and demand) like this would help raise the quality and size of add-ons in the long run. Yeah, right.
GameStop to offer in-store DLC purchases and new loyalty program this year [Joystiq]
