GameStop making money during industry downturn

What? Video game sales are down? That hasn’t stopped Texas-based GameStop from posting big profits.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the retailer pulled in $1.83 billion for the quarter ending October 31, 2009. That was an 8.3% increase over the same period in 2008.

Those are impressive numbers in a 2009 that has been down overall for the game industry. The DMN article also notes that GameStop is preparing for digital downloads to become a bigger portion of overall game sales, hiring two executives to work on that issue and improve online sales.

DMN‘s Victor Godinez talked with GameStop Chief Operating Officer Paul Raines, who doesn’t sound that worried about digital downloads:

“Consumers don’t pay the same amount for digital product as they do for boxed. I don’t know that there’s more profit to be made in a downloadable world than in a boxed one.”

The future is still a great unknown for the video game industry but GameStop is currently doing just fine. The retailer also has the 2009 holiday season ahead, filled with blockbusters including Uncharted 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Read [Dallas Morning News] Also Read [Gamertell]