GameStop chief J. Paul Raines recently told CNBC that the retail chain has seen sales double after hosting Pokemon Go-themed promotions this weekend in 462 stores that are also featured in-game as Pokestops or gyms.
The short interview segment, subtitled at one point “Cashing in on Pokemon frenzy,” is another notable example of how Niantic’s latest augmented-reality mobile game is influencing the video game market at large.
Last Friday, for example, Nintendo set a new Tokyo stock market record for the biggest daily turnover this century after a day of heavy trading — spurred, in large part, by the remarkable popularity of Pokemon Go.
“Our Pokemon merchandise is up significantly across the board,” said Raines. “So we’re very happy to see all this excitement around Pokemon in what is traditionally a slower time of the year for video gaming.”
He went on to acknowledge some of the interviewer’s comments about GameStop’s recent fiscal troubles, but remained bullish about the company’s fortunes in light of the upcoming release of the Nintendo NX, the impending PlayStation 4/Xbox One hardware refreshes and the PlayStation VR headset.
“We will have the dominant allocation of Sony VR products,” said Raines. “We will dominate the Sony VR part of that [VR] launch. We’re also involved with HTC Vive, and we’ve had discussions with Oculus Rift, but we really believe…we think Sony VR will be the dominant virtual reality.”