GameStop is starting to make big changes in an effort to stay relevant in an increasingly digital business. The company will shutter 120-130 retail game stores by the end of its fiscal year in order to focus on opening more Simply Mac, Cricket, and Spring Mobile stores to focus on hardware.
This serves as a part of what GameStop CEO Paul Raines called "GameStop 3.0," a new phase in the company's history, GamesIndustry International reports.
According to TIME, GameStop has 6,457 retail game stores. 130 would comprise approximately 2 percent of those.
Spring Mobile, owned wholly by GameStop, is in the business of AT&T mobile phones, Cricket is in a similar position, but licensed to companies like GameStop to sell prepaid wireless service. GameStop purchased Simply Mac, which sells Apple products, in 2013.
It's a small way of GameStop admitting they can't stay in physical games forever, though they still have thousands of physical game stores that aren't going anywhere soon. Still, you can't blame them for diversifying.
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[via GamesIndustry International andTIME]
