It hasn’t really been a secret in the industry that video game retailer GameStop has been having a rough time for the past several years. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that many people wonder how the former pillar of video game sales is even still around at all. Despite the ups and downs, a majority of gamers would feel a loss if the retailer actually did go under, for nostalgia perhaps, but also because it’s always difficult to learn that a wave of layoffs has happened at GameStop or any other company.GameStop has had a number of hiccups that have kept the company from making a resurgence as a successful online retailer, which it needs to do in order to stay relevant in a modern world where fewer people shop at brick-and-mortars. When he left the company’s board of directors, former Nintendo President Regis Fils-Aime stated that GameStop’s lack of a focused strategy was part of the reason. And perhaps that absence of a specific game plan partially explains why GameStop lost over $100 million in three months at the end of 2021.Now, more bad news has been shared about the gaming retailer, this time in the form of more layoffs that will impact employees across GameStop and Game Informer, the monthly gaming magazine that has been run by the company since 2000. As of the time of writing, it is not yet clear how many positions have been cut, but it sounds like the number is rather large. According to CEO Matt Furlong, the goal of this workforce reduction is to “sustain profitability,” and the company plans to invest more in its store leaders and employees, though it's not certain what that means. Paradoxically, in the aftermath of the layoff announcement, GameStop’s stock value fell overnight.
These layoffs come after GameStop hired more than 600 employees from the end of 2021 to early 2022, so it’s presumed that many of the employees laid off had only recently joined the company. Another notable person whose termination from GameStop will be effective immediately is Chief Financial Officer Mike Recupero, who will be replaced by the company’s Chief Accounting Officer Diana Saadeh-Jajeh. The reason for Recupero’s departure has not been clarified, but he is not the first C-suite exec to leave the company recently. In October 2021, Jenna Owens left GameStop after serving only seven months as the Chief Operating Officer.
Leaving the executives and turning to the bulk of the company’s workforce, GameStop employees have complained about low wages and long hours, as well as other terrible work conditions. Just this month, four Nebraska GameStop employees quit abruptly, locking the store behind them and leaving a note on the door to inform everybody that their “district manager has no respect for us as employees or as human beings.” Shoppers, the former workers explained, should spend their money “at an establishment that respects it’s [sic] employees.”