GameStop profit drops as sales slump

Grapevine, Texas GameStop Corp. said Thursday that its fiscal second-quarter profit 32% fell to $38.7 million from $57.2 million a year earlier, with the loss attributed to the stalled economy and difficult comparisons. The video-game retailer also cut its profit forecast for the rest of the year.

Sales fell 3.7% to $1.74 billion; same-store store sales decreased 14%.

GameStop has suffered from an industrywide slump in sales over the past few months. In addition to the pullback in consumer spending, the video-game sector is going up against a difficult comparison to last year's spring-summer period, during which the most popular games of the year were introduced.

Most analysts widely believe the holiday shopping season will help restore growth with the release of such anticipated titles as "The Beatles: Rock Band" and "Tony Hawk: Ride" are expected to ring up strong sales.