GameStop Corporation (NYSE: GME), headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, is the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer. The company operates 4,592 retail stores throughout Japan, U.S., Canada, Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Austria, Puerto Rico , Switzerland and Sweden.

Retail stores operate primarily under the GameStop and EB Games brands but also operate under Software Etc., E.B.X., Babbage's, FuncoLand, and the recently acquired Rhino Video Games. In addition, the company runs two ecommerce websites, GameStop.com and EBgames.com, and also Game Informer magazine, a leading video and computer game publication. In addition to video and computer games, GameStop sells magazines, strategy guides, entertainment DVDs and other related merchandise, along with buying used games and movies from its customers. A new store concept called MovieStop, which focuses on selling movies rather than games, is currently building and operating stores in the Southeastern United States, including the Dallas area.

GameStop traces its roots to Babbage's, a mall software retailer that started in Dallas, Texas in 1983. The movements that made Babbage's into GameStop started in 1994 with a series of mergers. The first was with Software Etc. in 1994, the second was with Funcoland stores in 2000, and the third was with Electronics Boutique (now EB Games) in 2005, taking four competing, major mall software retailers and placing them under a single corporate umbrella.

When Babbage's merged with another mall software retailer, Software Etc., in 1994  the combined company was named NeoStar Retail, but the two halves continued to operate as if they were separate entities.

The combined management of the newly formed entity developed a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. This ultimately caused NeoStar to go into Chapter 11 reorganization in early fall of 1996. At this point the company had approximately 800 stores in the United States. Several potential buyers of NeoStar's assets emerged. One of the potential buyers was Electronics Boutique.

 Leonard Riggio
On the last day of the manager's conference there was a special guest during lunch. Leonard Riggio, the head of Barnes & Noble, announced that he and a group of investors were going to put in place the financing to keep the company afloat, and get new merchandise into the stores in time for Christmas. (At this point, the company's creditors were owed so much back revenue that they were no longer shipping anything to NeoStar.) Riggio and his investors would also be making a buyout offer to the bankruptcy court in the coming week.

In a personal comment during the address, Riggio stated that he "hated" the name Neostar Retail, and thought that the merged Babbage's/Software Etc. should have been called Babbage's Etc. He said should his buyout bid be successful, and he was boldly confident it would be, that the company would be renamed.