According to Gamestop’s CEO, Paul Raines, new console announcements may be made during the upcoming E3.
GameStop’s CEO said as much in an interview with Fox Business recently. Raines said that he would love to see those new consoles “come in”.
"t's coming off of a year, we had a record net income year last year and our GameStop-branded stores had record profitability as did our technology-brand stores so we're very happy with that title and where the business is at.
We'd love to see some virtual reality and some new consoles come in. We're going to hear about that at E3. But I'd say for investors, GameStop's very healthy and a very resilient company.
Since the Nintendo NX won’t be present at this E3, Raines is referring to Sony’s rumored PS4 Neo and Microsoft’s possible new Xbox – codenamed ‘Scorpio. During Gamestop’s earnings call last week, Raines already stated that he expected new console announcements to be made during the E3 this year.
Remember that in the video game segment, we're overlapping an 8% comp last year and a 41% growth rate in our overall earnings per share in Q2 of 2015. Only two years ago, our Q2 earnings per share were $0.22. So the midpoint of our guidance reflects about 20% growth over the two-year period. We're excited about E3 and expect to hear major news on virtual reality as well as potential new consoles. These events have traditionally been a catalyst for GME shares, and Mike Hogan has done some modeling of potential impact that he will share with you in his remarks. Tony Bartel will also update you on our expectations for E3.
In the same earnings call, Gamestop compared potential Nintendo NX sales to sales of the Wii and Wii U. According to Gamestop’s EVP of Strategy and Business Development, Mike Hogan, the Nintendo NX “could be huge”.