GameStop’s Pursuit of Ebay Gets Weird
Plus, a major price hike for the Switch 2 is announced
What do you do when you’re desperate for cash? You sell stuff on Ebay, which is apparently what GameStop is doing to try and buy Ebay. Check out the details below. Also, the price of the Switch 2 is going up soon. Find out when along with all the news from the past week. Let’s go!
GameStop’s attempted Ebay acquisition
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen on Squawk Box
We mentioned in last week’s side quests that GameStop wanted to acquire Ebay, a company worth four times what the discount gaming store is worth. The story only got stranger as GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen went on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the potential acquisition.
When asked how he planned to afford the $55.5 billion GameStop is offering for Ebay, Cohen said the deal was “half cash, half stock,” without further explanation. Show co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed Cohen, saying “I’m just saying that math doesn’t get you to the price that you’re offering.”
Apparently Sorkin was right, as later in the week Cohen posted on Twitter that he was selling stuff on Ebay to pay for buying Ebay.
It turns out part of what Cohen was selling off was items from the Game Informer Vault, a collection of rare games and merchandise acquired by the magazine when they were owned by GameStop. However, the fire sale did not last long, as Ebay suspended Cohen’s account.
According to GameStop, the company has $20 billion in committed financing lined up for the acquisition and $9.4 billion in “liquid assets” like Bitcoin it could use. That still leaves it significantly short of their proposal.
Nintendo is raising the price of the Switch 2
Nintendo announced that the price of the Switch 2 will increase beginning September 1 in North America, Europe and Japan. U.S. consumers will see a nearly 11% increase in the cost for the hardware, as the price rises from $450 to $500.
Nintendo says “changes in market conditions” and “the global business outlook” are the reason for the increase, which translates to component prices increasing due to a demand for AI. Over the last year, all three major consoles (and even some smaller ones) have raised their prices.
The announcement comes alongside Nintendo’s latest financial report. In it, the company says they have sold nearly 20 million Switch 2s since they launched less than a year ago. Not surprisingly, the company projects lower sales numbers after the price hikes go into effect.
The report also provided detailed sales numbers for games released within the fiscal year. Here are how many units of each Nintendo sold.
- Mario Kart World: 14.7 million
- Donkey Kong Bananza: 4.52 million
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A: 3.94 million
- Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream: 3.8 million
- Pokémon Pokopia: 2.41 million
- Kirby Air Riders: 1.87 million
Side Quests (more stories worth reading)
🎞️ We posted a new Game Trailer Friday featuring some of the titles mentioned below. Check it out.
🦊 Nintendo held a direct to show off a new Star Fox game, which is actually a remake of Star Fox 64.
🎮 The new Steam Controller sold out within 30 minutes of launch, so Valve created a reservation queue “to limit reseller activity.”
📆 Mina The Hollower, the long-awaited new game from Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games, will finally release May 29.
🇨🇳 CCP Games, the studio behind EVE Online, changed their name to Fenris Creations to avoid confusion with the Chinese Communist Party.
☁️ Microsoft held an in-depth look at the upcoming game Stranger than Heaven.
👏🏽 Over 10 years after it was taken down from Steam, R.U.S.E. was re-released with technical updates and Steam Deck support.
📺 Bridgerton is coming to The Sims 4 on May 12.
🏢 Check out the story of how a trio of Canadian modders stumbled into making an official Die Hard game.
🎶 The recently released game Mixtape does not have a streaming mode because its licensed music is its “soul.”
🔫 The next Call of Duty game will not be released on PlayStation 4.
🧟 Capcom released a new minigame for Resident Evil Requiem owners called Leon Must Die Forever.
🧙🏼♂️ Atari acquired the rights to the first five games of the Wizardry franchise.
🤖 Microsoft scrapped its development of its Copilot AI companion for Xbox and plans to change the console’s bootup screen.
🐮 Players have finally discovered Diablo 4’s secret cow level.
💰 Bank of America says Grand Theft Auto 6 should sell for $80 to help push the price of games up for the entire industry.
👃🏾 Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is getting its own perfume.
♟️ Arcs was named board game of the year by the Italian tabletop magazine ioGioco.
✊🏿 Employees at Psychonauts developer Double Fine are unionizing, while Wizards of the Coast has declined to recognize an employee union.
New Releases this week:
Check out our article on 10 new games to play in May for a more detailed look at some of these titles:
5/11: Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes (PC)
5/12: Call of the Elder Gods (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
5/12: Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
5/13: Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery (PC)
5/14: Outbound (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
5/14: Subnautica 2 (Xbox and PC)
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