US games retail giant GameStop today blasted back from the disappointment of being pipped to the post in the swoop for Gamestation by reporting its strongest ever Q1 results.

For the three months ending February 3rd, the company reported net profits of some $24.7 million, an impressive 111 per cent increase over the same period last year. At the same time, revenues increased by 23 per cent to $1.3 billion, with like-for-like sales up by 15.3 per cent.

GameStop also reported that hardware sales grew by a significant 75.1 per cent during the quarter, drive by “overwhelming demand” for Nintendo’s Wii and DS Lite systems, plus strong sales of Xbox 360 and PS3.

"Our first quarter results were driven by the strong growth of next generation hardware despite both Nintendo products, the Wii and DS Lite, being in short supply throughout the quarter," offered GameStop’s chairman and CEO R. Richard Fontaine.

"Our business is benefiting from unmatched platform expansion. For much of the quarter, seven different platforms were represented among our top 25 best sellers. Not only was this unprecedented, but there is every indication that the Wii and DS Lite titles are attracting a new audience of gamers, while the allure of genre breakthrough titles like Guitar Hero II are expanding the audience for video of in-store scheduling.

"I am also happy to announce that during the first quarter GameStop was added to the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. corporations," concluded Fontaine.

GameStop is thought to have been making a move for the UK chain Gamestation before rival retailer GAME made a bid for the Blockbuster-owned specialist earlier this month (MCV Online 2/5).