Microsoft and GameStop ink a multi-year strategic partnership

Microsoft and GameStop announced today a new agreement that aims to grow the latter's "physical and digital video game offerings," among other goals. The multi-year partnership will involve Microsoft's Dynamics 365 cloud platform, Surface devices, Teams, and Xbox All Access service.

As part of the deal, GameStop will use Dynamics 365 for its business operations including finance, inventory, eCommerce, retail, and point of sale. For GameStop's store associates, this will help them access "omni-channel insights about customer preferences and purchasing history, real time information on product availability, subscriptions, pricing, and promotions in order to provide a differentiated and personalized in-store customer experience."

Microsoft will also provide GameStop store staff with new Surface devices to address the needs of customers and handle store operations. In addition, store associates will use Teams for communication and collaboration. This will enable them to share ideas with other staff, GameStop said.

Phil Spencer, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Gaming, said:

“For many years GameStop has been a strong go-to-market partner for our gaming products, and we are excited about continuing and evolving that relationship for the launch of the Xbox Series X|S. GameStop’s extensive store base, focus on digital transformation in an omni-channel environment and expert gamer associates remain an important part of our gaming ecosystem, and we’re pleased to elevate our partnership.”

GameStop will also add Xbox All Access to its Xbox offerings. That includes an Xbox console with 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with no upfront cost. In a joint press release, the companies noted the benefits they will get from the partnership in terms of "customer acquisition and lifetime revenue value of each gamer brought into the Xbox ecosystem".