Casual Gamers Forcing Gamestop to Rethink Store Layouts

[wraggster]

via /.

The Guardian Gamesblog has up a post noting that Gamestop will be rearranging stores to meet casual gamer needs. For example, they'll be creating a section just for music games (karaoke, guitar games, etc). They'll also be putting together a 'family-friendly' area, with a focus on titles like Nintendogs, Lego Star Wars, and the like. The post is based off of an interview in The New York Times with Daniel A. DeMatteo, Gamestop's vice chairman and chief operating officer. In his mind casual games are now so important to sales that the company is having to do some 'radical retail re-thinking':
"There is a real breadth of properties now appealing to a much broader audience than we've seen before. Honestly, we are having to retool the way we think of things in our stores in terms of merchandising, layout and also customer service because it is no longer only the hardcore gamer walking in who knows exactly what he wants."

[mcdougall57]

i have a feeling this has to do with the wii condoning casual gamers and the like

[Johnny Rash]

When did it become a problem to search for 15 minutes to find the game you want? I prefer to browse, in all the sections really. That's the joys of being there.

[kalhalla]

Oh my god, I totally saw this tuesday in gamestop. I hadn't gone into one for like, maybe a year or 2 and I ws walking around and decided to go check out if anything was new that I missed.

Here I am looking at this abysmal collection of DS games, going "WOW ds market really has gone downhill" I look up and it says KIDS GAMES. Then theres other sections too.

The store is hardly categorized by system its moreso by genre / idea now. Hella stupid.

[paul1991]

Only LAMErs support GameStop!
They steal from children! I havent shopped there for years, save the time I purchased my Wii. I would have pruchased that from anybody.

[Johnny Rash]

Only LAMErs support GameStop!
They steal from children! I havent shopped there for years, save the time I purchased my Wii. I would have pruchased that from anybody.

Well, where do you buy for your gaming needs? Only place I can think of IS Gamestop.

[Shadowblind]

When did it become a problem to search for 15 minutes to find the game you want? I prefer to browse, in all the sections really. That's the joys of being there.

Lol, true. To just look around and see a game, maybe you never heard of, but it looks nice. And its pretty cheap too.

That really is half the reason to go to a Game store.