Gamestop, the biggest video game retailer in the United States, managed to increase their holiday 2013 sales thanks in large part to the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Gamespot is reporting that the retailer saw sales rise during the holiday season (which officially is the period between Thanksgiving and New Years) by 9.3 percent in comparison to the 2012 holiday shopping season. Gamestop made $3.15 billion in sales during this nine week stretch, showing that, while some industry insiders have doubted that the video game retailer could survive an increasingly digital world, in 2013 at least consumers still have demand for physical video games.

The big factor in helping Gamestop obtain these sales figures was the launch of the next generation of consoles. Sales of new video game hardware were up a stunning 99.8 percent over 2012, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 playing a major role in that surge. After all, the launch of new systems usually leads to a spike in hardware sales, and considering the record breaking pace both consoles have been on it should come as little surprise that hardware sales were as high as they were.

While hardware sales were up, software sales were also down during this time period. PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game sales were down 22.5 percent compared to 2012, which again is most likely due to fans switching over to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Gamestop did not disclose figures for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One software sales, but it was most likely enough for the previous consoles' software sales to plummet like they did.

The chief financial officer for Gamestop, Rob Lloyd, had this to say about news that software sales took as big of a hit as they did during the 2013 holiday shopping season:

"New software sales came in below our expectations...GameStop now expects its fourth quarter and full year 2013 same store sales to be at the high end of the current guidance range."
While Gamestop may be pleased with the rise in overall profits for the company, there are many hurdles the company must face in the near future. One is the recently announced PlayStation Now service, which is allow gamers to receive cloud streaming games to their video game consoles and several other devices. This could seriously impact the need for physical video games and cause Gamestop to suffer a serious loss of income.