GameStop has told MCV that it is pushing ahead with a plan to open another 200 stores in European territories – but the battleplan for the UK market is still under wraps.

The GameStop vice chairman, chief operating officer and director Dan DeMatteo revealed that after a glowing set of financials, the giant retailer is committed to cementing its status as the world’s largest games chain by expanding upon its current store count of around 4,800.

“We consider the European market to be a big driver in the growth of our stores,” DeMatteo told MCV.

“It’s not that we don’t have a lot of room here in the United States, but we consider Europe to be extremely important to our expansion.

“We will open 500 to 550 more stores this year, and around 300 to 350 will be in the US. That leaves around 200 internationally – most will be in Europe, but some will be in Australia and some in Canada.”

With GAME’s recent acquisition of Gamestation turning up the heat on the domestic marketplace, DeMatteo could not speak specifically about any plans to directly compete with the UK’s biggest games retailer.

“European expansion is very important for us, and of course the UK is a big market,” he said. “But I really can’t comment on that.”

And he added that the expansion push has been aided by a hugely successful last few months at retail: “We’ve had good sales growth driven by a whole plethora of products, many of them Nintendo’s. Both Wii and DS led the way, but PS2 continued to do extremely well in the first quarter, despite being six years old.”