GameStop CEO: Tax Refunds Driving Sales, Boosting Mobile

GameStop CEO Paul Raines (NYSE:GME) told FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo consumers have started putting their tax refunds to work at GameStop as well as with their mobile partner AT&T (NYSE:T).

“I would say that they are in full steam now.  In our business tax checks tend to drive hardware sales, also, new video games, last week we launched Naruto which was a great title and we had 75%-80% market share probably on that.  It also sells a lot of digital gaming.”

Raines noted the company is coming off a generally decent holiday season which was fueled by lower gas prices.

“We had a 4.4% comp, our technology brand segment grew 60%, our collectibles business grew 300%, did very well, we had a little softness in the new game software and that probably surprised us and really the entire industry.”

Looking ahead Raines is positioning GameStop for the launch of several  major Virtual Reality products, which he believes will be a lucrative business.

“The market size is really hard to measure right now but there are a lot of different measurements, all of them start with a B.  In fact I saw a Goldman Sachs report the other day that said that the virtual reality segment will be worth about $80 billion by 2025, so it’s a big launch.”