GameStop's surprising success selling DLC extends to Watch Dogs

“We don’t talk about defending against digital distribution. We talk about driving digital distribution. We’re on offense when it comes to digital.”

- GameStop president Tony Bartel In a new interview with GamesBeat, GameStop president Tony Bartel shares some interesting statistics on the sales of Watch Dogs DLC which help illuminate not just his own retail chain's digital content strategy, but the success of triple-A season pass bundling. The most surprising statistic: Over 70 percent of season passes for Ubisoft's games were sold at retail during the first quarter of 2014, Bartel said, citing Ubi's own stats. Watch Dogs had a 14 percent attach rate with its season pass. For his chain's part, Bartel says he believes GameStop "nearly corner[s] that market" of selling season passes at retail. According to Bartel, 30 percent of Watch Dogs buyers at GameStop picked up the season pass at the store, too. If you've bought a big, triple-A game at a GameStop lately, you've likely been upsold on DLC -- which Bartel says is a big part of the company's success selling it at retail. Another interesting fact: Bartel points out the the margin on DLC is "software-like," when sold at retail. "In some cases they’re a little less or a little more, but the other nice thing is that we carry no inventory, obviously," Bartel told GamesBeat.