GameStop's third-quarter results have been assassinated by the delayed release of its much-awaited game Assassin's Creed Unity.
On Nov. 20, GameStop released the financial results for the quarter ended Nov. 1, 2014 and reported a decline in the total global sale.
For Q3 2014, the company announced total global sales of $2.09 billion, which is a reduction of 0.7 percent in comparison to the $2.11 billion reported in the same quarter of 2013. The company also announced that the consolidated comparable store sales were -2.3 percent, which the company blames on the late release of its anticipated historical action-adventure video game Assassin's Creed Unity.
The video game was set for a global release on Oct. 28. However, Ubisoft, publisher of the game, announced in August that the game would be released on Nov. 11 in North America and in other major regions on Nov. 13.
"As we got close to the finish, we realized we were near the target but still needed a bit more time to hone some of the details to make sure Assassin's Creed Unity is exceptional," said Vincent Pontbriand, senior producer at Ubisoft in August.
Despite the pinch felt by the late release of Assassin's Creed Unity, the company reported positive results in some of its departments. Sales of its new hardware increased 147.4 percent compared to industry growth of 102.4 percent.
GameStop reached a 47.3 percent market share in new software sales for Q3, although new software sales fell 34.4 percent.
The pre-owned or value category noted a positive growth of 2.6 percent, which is the third continuous positive growing quarter.
Sales in the consumer electronics and mobile category also rose 125 percent, which was mainly due to solid Spring Mobile results and continuous expansion. Spring Mobile is a subsidiary of GameStop that retails AT&T's wireless phones.
GameStop posted $56.4 million profit, or 50 cents per share, for the quarter in comparison to $68.6 million profit, or 58 cents per share, during the same quarter of 2013. Analysts estimated a profit of 61 cents per share.
"Overall, most of our major product categories performed very well, but our third quarter results were impacted by Assassin's Creed Unity moving out of October," says Paul Raines, CEO of GameStop.
The shares of GameStop took a hit and fell by about 11 percent in extended trading after it announced reduced earnings forecast for 2014 of $3.40 to $3.55 per share from $3.40 to $3.70 per share.
