GameStop’s chief executive officer Ryan Cohen doesn’t seem concerned about the news that PlayStation is ditching physical discs. He says physical games going away is “totally irrelevant” to GameStop’s future.
In a new interview with Bloomberg, Cohen was asked about the demise of physical video game discs after Sony recently announced that it was ending production of new physical PlayStation games starting in 2028. But according to the CEO, that won’t matter to GameStop.
“It doesn’t matter at all,” Cohen told Bloomberg. “It is totally, totally irrelevant.” As pointed out by Bloomberg, while at one point GameStop’s primary business was software sales, the company has shifted in recent years to selling collectibles, trading cards, toys, and other items like Funko Pops. Earlier this year, GameStop announced that game sales only accounted for 18 percent of its revenue. Meanwhile, trading cards and toys made up 41 percent of its business.
According to Cohen, this shift is why he pursued his plan to purchase and acquire internet bidding site eBay for around $55 billion. eBay, unsurprisingly, said no to the unsolicited deal in May.
When Cohen was asked about the huge levels of hype for Take-Two’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, set to launch in November as a digital-only product, Cohen didn’t answer the question and instead replied: “I want to go back and talk about eBay.” The move means that GameStop won’t be able to sell used copies of GTA 6 after launch. And with reports that GTA 6 may never get a physical release, beyond a code in a box, GameStop might never get to sell used copies of GTA 6.
But whatever, Cohen is all on that eBay train, baby. According to Cohen, who recently gave one of the weirdest interviews in years to CNBC, if GameStop and eBay joined forces, it could potentially create a “$1 trillion business.” That explains why Cohen isn’t giving up on his plans to buy eBay, with him talking about the proposed deal again in June. Good luck with that, dude.
