The obvious is to make the transition from retailer to publisher/distributor. Valve was once a pure developer, but they made their transition to digital distribution and publishing and I'm _pretty_ sure they're doing much better now than when they were doing 1 game every other year distributed by Sierra or some other publisher.
It's definitely out of Gamespot's comfort zone, surely, and Kongregate might look like an odd purchase from a fanboy/consumer point of view. But, casual gaming is incredibly lucrative, especially when linked to social networking sites and mobile. I'm sure Gamestop won't stop (ha-ha) at Kongregate. Perhaps they should next go after a big name in mobile, like Gameloft, ngmoco:) or Glu.
I'd actually like to see some consolidation in the casual gaming industry, if for no other reason than to see if casual gaming can be a place for heavy hitting AAA-type publishers the size of EA or Activision, or if it's just the land of the indies and one- or two-hit wonders.
It's definitely out of Gamespot's comfort zone, surely, and Kongregate might look like an odd purchase from a fanboy/consumer point of view. But, casual gaming is incredibly lucrative, especially when linked to social networking sites and mobile. I'm sure Gamestop won't stop (ha-ha) at Kongregate. Perhaps they should next go after a big name in mobile, like Gameloft, ngmoco:) or Glu.
I'd actually like to see some consolidation in the casual gaming industry, if for no other reason than to see if casual gaming can be a place for heavy hitting AAA-type publishers the size of EA or Activision, or if it's just the land of the indies and one- or two-hit wonders.