With the acquisition of Spawn Labs and Impulse, Inc, GameStop has taken steps toward achieving relevancy in a digital-distribution field that has long been dominated by services like Steam.
On Thursday, GameStop, the world's largest video-game retailer, signaled that the company will not be left behind by the industry's move to digital distribution. GameStop announced the company had reached an agreement to purchase Impulse, Inc., a digital distribution platform provider, and has acquired Spawn Labs, a team of game streaming and virtualization experts. With the two moves, GameStop took steps toward achieving relevancy in a digital-distribution field that has long been dominated by services like Steam, Direct2Drive, and Apple's Mac and iTunes App Stores. The acquisitions suggest that GameStop is not only acknowledging the limitations of a store retailer market strategy but that there's still money to be made in the PC gaming market.
According to GameSpot, Spawn Labs' team will be used to create a "new consumer interface" that will allow users access to a "wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device." Whether or not this new interface will be able to challenge traditional powers like Steam remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Impulse currently offers a robust digital download platform that will be fully integrated into GameStop within "the next few months." The acquisition is a smart one for GameStop as Impulse already has several of the tools that GameStop will need to build a platform capable of competing with better-known brands in the digital-distribution space.
Impulse brings several digital-distribution components to GameStop, including a publishing tool that will allow publishers to manager their games with reporting and management tools. Meanwhile, Impulse also provides a client component that GameStop claims will bring a library of over a thousand games a day to their user base. Additionally, Impulse has a "Reactor" component that provides publishers "customer friendly DRM and copy protection tools." It also allows developers to enable achievements, account management, friend lists, chat, multiplayer lobbies, and cloud storage within their games."
The acquisition of Impulse is subject to closing conditions, but GameStop announced it is expected to close in May 2011. J. Paul Raines, chief executive officer of GameStop, said, "With these important acquisitions, we will continue to make appropriate investments related to our multichannel strategy. GameStop is uniquely positioned to be the leader in both the physical and digital gaming space."
GameStop certainly is the dominant force in the physical gaming space. Whether or not it can take that success to the digital distribution space remains to be seen. The acquisitions of Impulse and Spawn Labs, however, certain signal the company is willing to try.
Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Friday, April 1, 2011