
Gamestop acquires Kongregate - ojbyrne
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/27/gamestop-kongregate/
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jim-greer
Here's a video of me talking about it:
<http://www.kongregate.com/pages/kongregate-announcement>

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tbeseda
Congratulations. I've always enjoyed your product/community (as a gamer, not
dev). I hope GameStop does you right.

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benologist
Devs love the site too.

Congratulations Jim, Emily and everyone else.

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jakarta
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.

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muhfuhkuh
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.

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barrettcolin
They've already purchased another browser game company; Jolt Online, based in
Ireland: [http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamestop-acquires-jolt-
online-g...](http://www.next-gen.biz/news/gamestop-acquires-jolt-online-
gaming)

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ax0n
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.

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brandnewlow
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.

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xiaoma
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.

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

