Despite struggling as a company, GameStop says they believe they're going to have an incredible Q4 2018 this year. Vice president of merchandising Eric Bright sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to discuss some of the big announcements that came out of E3 and no surprise, Nintendo's announcements are a driving force for sales for the company. Bright mentions Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption 2 as big successes in the pre-order department, but it's Nintendo's draw that has really done the company well.
Bright confirmed that Switch sales doubled over the week of E3, likely thanks to several announcements by the company. In fact, Bright says that nothing beats Nintendo's announcements for driving sales and that's exactly what we like to hear.
"Nothing beats Nintendo's overall announcements. Super Smash Bros is jumping right up to the top of the [pre-order] list. We're also seeing great reaction from Pokémon Let's Go, both SKUs, and then of course people are trying to get their hands on the Pokéball [controller] as well. Nintendo fans are definitely reacting, but we're also seeing an incredible reaction from the tried and true franchises like Call of Duty. I think when they introduced their battle royale mode that spurred a lot of consumer interest; we're seeing pick-up from that."
While Nintendo's E3 showing felt a little sparse for long-time fans awaiting news of Animal Crossing or perhaps a port or sequel of Super Mario Maker, there's no denying the appeal of a new Smash game with every single character (sorry Waluigi) and an entry-Pokemon game to get those whose first Pokemon game was Pokemon Go on board with a new mainline game.
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