GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Insists Sony Killing Physical Discs 'Doesn't Matter at All' Because Video Game Sales Make Up So Little of His Business

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has sparked a fiery statement successful the gaming assemblage aft remarking that income of carnal games are “totally irrelevant" to his business.

Cohen made the divisive connection successful a July 16 interrogation with Bloomberg TV aft being asked however GameStop could beryllium impacted by Sony’s industry-changing determination to halt printing carnal crippled discs for caller PlayStation games starting January 2028.

In response, helium argued that the bulk of GameStop’s income hinges connected income of collectibles, alternatively than gaming software, insisting that the games themselves are chump alteration compared to the figures, merch, and trading cards GameStop is presently focused connected putting successful stores.

“It doesn't matter. It doesn’t substance astatine all,” helium told the outlet. “Software... it mattered successful the past. Software contiguous makes up little than 12% of the business, and collectibles makes up implicit fractional the business. So it’s totally, wholly irrelevant.”

"GameStop is simply a concern that was connected the brink of bankruptcy, and everybody was betting against it for bully reason," Cohen said earlier successful the interview. "And present the institution is making much wealth than it's ever made successful its history."

When asked astir the imaginable for Rockstar's highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 to bring successful large concern for GameStop, Cohen wholly ignored the question, choosing alternatively to sermon his failed $55.5 cardinal bid for eBay backmost successful May.

“I privation you to look your viewers successful the eyes and archer them, ‘Are you gonna stake connected an entrenched absorption squad moving the business, oregon me, idiosyncratic that went caput to caput against Amazon selling 30-pound bags of canine food, turned astir a precise pugnacious concern astatine GameStop, and present the institution is making tons of money?” helium posed.

Earlier successful the interview, Cohen gave an illustration of what aboriginal income mightiness look similar astatine GameStop, saying the marque could “unlock unrecorded commerce” and usage its carnal stores for “same-day authentication” portion utilizing eBay’s infrastructure — if the woody ever goes done — to “build retired an in-game, integer marketplace.”

This is Cohen’s latest viral interrogation pursuing his bizarre remarks successful a speech with CNBC’s Squawk Box programme backmost successful May, wherever helium said helium “didn’t recognize the question” erstwhile asked by hosts wherever GameStop would get the wealth to acquisition eBay.

At the opening of 2025, GameStop had astir 2,325 locations successful the U.S., but by the extremity of the twelvemonth it had closed 590 of them. It past kicked disconnected 2026 by closing adjacent much stores arsenic portion of an effort to trim costs.

For years present immoderate person called GameStop a dying bricks and mortar retailer arsenic it looks to caller and often bizarre ways to make revenue. August 2023 saw the institution propulsion retired of crypto, and it unopen its short-lived NFT marketplace conscionable a fewer months later. More precocious (and overmuch to the dismay of its employees), GameStop held its first-ever Trade Anything Day, which saw customers bringing successful virtually thing for trade-in recognition astatine their section stores.

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With 10 years of acquisition reporting connected games and entertainment, she’s got a storied inheritance successful the warring crippled community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her connected Twitter astatine @TheeMissGlaze.