Halo 5: Guardians, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and Star Wars Battlefront all fell short of sales expectations, according to US retail giant GameStop, leading to a "challenging" quarter for the chain.

Speaking during the firm's Q3 2015 earnings call last night (via Seeking Alpha), CEO Julian Raines explained that "the quarter was challenging due to underperformance of Halo and Assassin's Creed late in the quarter and lack of sales acceleration from hardware price cuts during the quarter."

COO Tony Bartel later added that "EA's Star Wars Battlefront fell short of expectations" as well.

"[W]e're not going to quantify it in actual number," Bartel said discussing Battlefront's lower than expected sales. "But we had high expectations that diminished somewhat as it got closer, and then it failed to hit those lowered expectations."

Sales are expected to pick back up once Star Wars: The Force Awakens releases in December, however, with GameStop expecting it to be "one of the strongest titles for the holiday seasons" despite the "slow start".