Thursday, May 22, 2008
GameStop Dumps The Zune
Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune Hardware" @ 12:35 PM
"Video-game retailer GameStop has decided to stop selling Microsoft's Zune players at its stores due to what it sees as insufficient demand from customers. The move is unlikely to affect GameStop, whose sales come almost completely from video games but it puts up another hurdle in Microsoft's attempt to grow Zune sales. "We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated," said a GameStop spokesperson. "It (also) did not fit with our product mix." GameStop made the decision about a month ago. GameStop said it will sell Zune players online until it clears out its inventory."I don't know how many Zunes GameStop was moving, but I suspect it wasn't many if they're making this move. It's unfortunate, because the v2 Zune is really a strong contender and it plays nicely with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem (which includes the Xbox 360 that GameStop does sell). Losing a retail chain will hurt Microsoft's ability to sell the Zune - the only question is how much, and will other retailers follow GameStop's lead?
