In a conference call with investors today the team at video game and knick-knack retailer GameStop confirmed plans to close 180-200 "underperforming" stores this year, with more to come in the years ahead.

That second bit is the more notable part of this news, as GamesIndustry reports that a GameStop representative alluded to plans for implementing a new, metrics-driven approach to gauging store performance that will lead to many more closures.

"We have a clear opportunity to improve our overall profitability by de-densifying our chain," the representative said during the call. "And while these [180-200] closures were more opportunistic, we are applying a more definitive, analytic approach, including profit levels and sales transferability, that we expect will yield a much larger tranche of closures over the coming 12 to 24 months."

It's yet unclear how many workers this will affect, and it comes hot on the heels of a Q2 earnings report which revealed that GameStop's sales fell year-over-year in nearly every category, even as the company continues to try and cut costs (by, among other things, laying off large numbers of people).