5 ms·

Gamestop acquires Kongregate

66 points by ojbyrne 16y ago

jim-greer 16y ago
Here's a video of me talking about it: http://www.kongregate.com/pages/kongregate-announcement http://www.kongregate.com/pages/kongregate-announcement
- tbeseda 16y ago
  Congratulations. I've always enjoyed your product/community (as a gamer, not dev). I hope GameStop does you right.
  - benologist 16y ago
    Devs love the site too. Congratulations Jim, Emily and everyone else.
- robinwauters 16y ago
  Again, nice rickroll :)
- sachinag 16y ago
  Jim, congrats - you were so helpful (you probably don't remember) when I was getting Dawdle off the ground. Just know that we're still committed to destroying your new corporate overlords and I hope you got all cash. :)
- lionhearted 16y ago
  That was one of the most fantastic explaining-a-change videos I've ever seen. Great mix of humor, seriousness, understanding business and technical sense, understanding markets - just getting you on Gamestop's upper management team could be huge for them if it's mostly old school retail guys. Congratulations, Jim, seems like a smart buy for them and hopefully now you've got financial security to do whatever the heck you like henceforth. Whatever your next projects down the road may be, I'm going to pay close attention to them :)
- Sephr 16y ago
  Please, don't auto-play videos.
ax0n 16y ago
I worked for GameStop back when they were having a really, really hard time. They were called Babbage's, had recently merged with Software, Etc (also a failing venture) and then filed for Chapter 11. They emerged when Barnes & Noble's Chairman rescued the embers of the company. Soon after, they bought up pretty much all of the competing stores around here (and from what I can tell, in other parts of the country) and seem to be doing pretty well these days. I jumped ship, but it was just a high-school job anyway. They're faring better than I would have imagined. Acquire-and-grow seems to be their business strategy. I don't know what they do with their online acquisitions, but they seem to gut, revamp and re-brand their brick-and-mortar assets. Wishing you the best of luck, Jim! I'm glad they're leaving you guys at the helm.
- brandnewlow 16y ago
  A ha! That's what happened to those two chains. I used to love going to them when stuck at the mall. Had forgotten all about them.
jakarta 16y ago
It's pretty interesting to see Gamestop do this deal. In the industry, the consensus seems to be that in 5-8 years Gamestop is going to get killed as we move towards digital distribution platforms. So the question is, what do you do in the meantime? I don't think keeping brick and mortar stores around but changing the revenue mix will make a big difference. There isn't anything left to really change to. Hollywood Video had some success with Game Crazy (a Gamestop competitor). But now the gaming biz is set to go away too. I see it as two options: A. Go out and do deals (Gamestop is debt free and has hundreds of millions in cash) -- Gamestop appears to be doing this with the Kongregate deal B. Start releasing cash back via dividends and buybacks. Game Group in the UK (similar to Gamestop) pays out a big 7% dividend. I'm interested in seeing which one ultimately works out. Gamestop could make (A) work, but only if they do more deals, make the right hires, and give them the kind of autonomy and support that is needed to build out an entirely new business from within a dying one.
- muhfuhkuh 16y ago
  The obvious is to make the transition from retailer to publisher/distributor. Valve was once a pure developer, but they made their transition to digital distribution and publishing and I'm _pretty_ sure they're doing much better now than when they were doing 1 game every other year distributed by Sierra or some other publisher. It's definitely out of Gamespot's comfort zone, surely, and Kongregate might look like an odd purchase from a fanboy/consumer point of view. But, casual gaming is incredibly lucrative, especially when linked to social networking sites and mobile. I'm sure Gamestop won't stop (ha-ha) at Kongregate. Perhaps they should next go after a big name in mobile, like Gameloft, ngmoco:) or Glu. I'd actually like to see some consolidation in the casual gaming industry, if for no other reason than to see if casual gaming can be a place for heavy hitting AAA-type publishers the size of EA or Activision, or if it's just the land of the indies and one- or two-hit wonders.
  - barrettcolin 16y ago
    They've already purchased another browser game company; Jolt Online, based in Ireland: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamestop-acquires-jolt-online-gaming http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamestop-acquires-jolt-online-g...
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
zackattack 16y ago
Congratulations. Kongregate has some sweet addicting games. I would love a blog post from you on the elements of engaging Flash gameplay...
xiaoma 16y ago
I've been a long-time user of Kongregate recently worked through their flash tutorials. They were very basic, but well done. I really enjoy the site, congrats.

66 points by ojbyrne 16y ago

Here's a video of me talking about it: http://www.kongregate.com/pages/kongregate-announcement http://www.kongregate.com/pages/kongregate-announcement

tbeseda 16y ago
Congratulations. I've always enjoyed your product/community (as a gamer, not dev). I hope GameStop does you right.
- benologist 16y ago
  Devs love the site too. Congratulations Jim, Emily and everyone else.
robinwauters 16y ago
Again, nice rickroll :)
sachinag 16y ago
Jim, congrats - you were so helpful (you probably don't remember) when I was getting Dawdle off the ground. Just know that we're still committed to destroying your new corporate overlords and I hope you got all cash. :)
lionhearted 16y ago
That was one of the most fantastic explaining-a-change videos I've ever seen. Great mix of humor, seriousness, understanding business and technical sense, understanding markets - just getting you on Gamestop's upper management team could be huge for them if it's mostly old school retail guys. Congratulations, Jim, seems like a smart buy for them and hopefully now you've got financial security to do whatever the heck you like henceforth. Whatever your next projects down the road may be, I'm going to pay close attention to them :)
Sephr 16y ago
Please, don't auto-play videos.

ax0n 16y ago

I worked for GameStop back when they were having a really, really hard time. They were called Babbage's, had recently merged with Software, Etc (also a failing venture) and then filed for Chapter 11. They emerged when Barnes & Noble's Chairman rescued the embers of the company. Soon after, they bought up pretty much all of the competing stores around here (and from what I can tell, in other parts of the country) and seem to be doing pretty well these days. I jumped ship, but it was just a high-school job anyway. They're faring better than I would have imagined. Acquire-and-grow seems to be their business strategy. I don't know what they do with their online acquisitions, but they seem to gut, revamp and re-brand their brick-and-mortar assets. Wishing you the best of luck, Jim! I'm glad they're leaving you guys at the helm.

brandnewlow 16y ago
A ha! That's what happened to those two chains. I used to love going to them when stuck at the mall. Had forgotten all about them.

jakarta 16y ago

It's pretty interesting to see Gamestop do this deal. In the industry, the consensus seems to be that in 5-8 years Gamestop is going to get killed as we move towards digital distribution platforms. So the question is, what do you do in the meantime? I don't think keeping brick and mortar stores around but changing the revenue mix will make a big difference. There isn't anything left to really change to. Hollywood Video had some success with Game Crazy (a Gamestop competitor). But now the gaming biz is set to go away too. I see it as two options: A. Go out and do deals (Gamestop is debt free and has hundreds of millions in cash) -- Gamestop appears to be doing this with the Kongregate deal B. Start releasing cash back via dividends and buybacks. Game Group in the UK (similar to Gamestop) pays out a big 7% dividend. I'm interested in seeing which one ultimately works out. Gamestop could make (A) work, but only if they do more deals, make the right hires, and give them the kind of autonomy and support that is needed to build out an entirely new business from within a dying one.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago
The obvious is to make the transition from retailer to publisher/distributor. Valve was once a pure developer, but they made their transition to digital distribution and publishing and I'm _pretty_ sure they're doing much better now than when they were doing 1 game every other year distributed by Sierra or some other publisher. It's definitely out of Gamespot's comfort zone, surely, and Kongregate might look like an odd purchase from a fanboy/consumer point of view. But, casual gaming is incredibly lucrative, especially when linked to social networking sites and mobile. I'm sure Gamestop won't stop (ha-ha) at Kongregate. Perhaps they should next go after a big name in mobile, like Gameloft, ngmoco:) or Glu. I'd actually like to see some consolidation in the casual gaming industry, if for no other reason than to see if casual gaming can be a place for heavy hitting AAA-type publishers the size of EA or Activision, or if it's just the land of the indies and one- or two-hit wonders.
- barrettcolin 16y ago
  They've already purchased another browser game company; Jolt Online, based in Ireland: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamestop-acquires-jolt-online-gaming http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamestop-acquires-jolt-online-g...

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

zackattack 16y ago

Congratulations. Kongregate has some sweet addicting games. I would love a blog post from you on the elements of engaging Flash gameplay...

xiaoma 16y ago

I've been a long-time user of Kongregate recently worked through their flash tutorials. They were very basic, but well done. I really enjoy the site, congrats.