Universally beloved video game vendor GameStop has announced plans to close about 120 of its 6,457 game stores by January of next year, GamesIndustry International reports. The company will presumably trade in the excess inventory of its unwanted stores for a disappointing cash payout. CEO Paul Raines explained in a presentation to investors that GameStop has grown weary of the whole video game thing, what with the imminent collapse of the physical-media game market and all. So the company is focusing on expansion of its other subsidiary chains, Spring Mobile and Simply Mac. To justify this new emphasis on cell phones and Apple products, Raines compared his company to VF Corporation, which started out as an underwear company but evolved by acquiring a number of jeans makers. In both cases, it’s simply a matter of the businesses understanding their core competencies: VF Corporation specializes in products that cover your ass, and GameStop specializes in products that seem more expensive than they ought to be.
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