Okay I was just watching something on Sizzler, you know the old buffet chain.
They were in a death spiral just like GameStop, but their marketers realized the same thing, that the company hadn’t changed anything in 20 years, so they could capitalize on the nostalgia of going to Sizzler. Quite literally they could say “Come on in, remember the 90s! Isn’t it so fun?!” Just ignore that it looks like the 90s because we never modernized anything or updated anything, but a fresh coat of paint will make it look new
I’m guessing this is the same thing. We have a company that honestly had 10-20 years to modernize and get with the times, and didn’t do really anything. Sure they fought to kept used games going, and they added funko pops, but honestly did they really try to modernize at all? I think they did some half ass attempts but they generally didn’t do anything.
So here we are, 20 years later, and they realized “Oh look, retro is cool now, it’s nostalgic. Let’s capitalize on that!”
Except nostalgia wears off, it’s not a business plan. Maybe this is the thing and maybe they become some sweet retro arcade, but honestly… probably not. The only reason they can do this is because they stayed in the 360/PS3 era so long that that’s all they have now. What’s going to happen in 10 years? They have PS5s in the retro area? But they barely had any in stock.
Anyway, something to think on. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. (Here’s the Sizzler Video I mentioned)
Those attempts seem full-assed to me; it’s just that none of them worked, from ThinkGeek to mobile devices. They had some pilot stores in a few locations, tragically rolled out just before lockdown, to see what kinds of concepts might stick. The one that seemed the most promising was one where it was like a gaming lounge, sort of like a LAN center but with consoles and such as well. There’s a non-Gamestop location like that near me but with way more floor space than your typical Gamestop. Given that most retail has gone online and digital, and brick-and-mortar is transitioning into services and experiences, this one made the most sense to me.
I remember Dallas-Ft Worth had one of those and it was awesome. Something like 20 bucks an hour, and I could go play any game there while waiting for a plane. There definitely needs to be more “Group gaming” areas, and that would be something I’d invest in.
In our suburban nightmare we live in, kids don’t have enough places to go be kids, and one of the things I did was lan/group game with people. Now there’s no space for that, and a rentable place would be ideal
There’s a lan/vr arcade near me, has like 40 super high end gaming rigs… they only get busy when there’s a big event like a non-local tournament or something. We also have multiple pinball/arcade bars, and most of them also have some retro consoles set up. One of the 4-man arcade machines at one of the places even has something like a retropi installed in it and you can pick between hundreds of games up to GameCube era, but nobody really ever plays those either. (The pinball is the draw).
Can’t see this doing a lot better, at least not in places with options.
Yeah, if it worked, it would not be as prolific as Gamestop was 20 years ago, but they’d survive as a business named Gamestop, potentially. Brick and mortar dedicated to video game sales doesn’t make sense anymore.
Okay I was just watching something on Sizzler, you know the old buffet chain.
They were in a death spiral just like GameStop, but their marketers realized the same thing, that the company hadn’t changed anything in 20 years, so they could capitalize on the nostalgia of going to Sizzler. Quite literally they could say “Come on in, remember the 90s! Isn’t it so fun?!” Just ignore that it looks like the 90s because we never modernized anything or updated anything, but a fresh coat of paint will make it look new
I’m guessing this is the same thing. We have a company that honestly had 10-20 years to modernize and get with the times, and didn’t do really anything. Sure they fought to kept used games going, and they added funko pops, but honestly did they really try to modernize at all? I think they did some half ass attempts but they generally didn’t do anything.
So here we are, 20 years later, and they realized “Oh look, retro is cool now, it’s nostalgic. Let’s capitalize on that!”
Except nostalgia wears off, it’s not a business plan. Maybe this is the thing and maybe they become some sweet retro arcade, but honestly… probably not. The only reason they can do this is because they stayed in the 360/PS3 era so long that that’s all they have now. What’s going to happen in 10 years? They have PS5s in the retro area? But they barely had any in stock.
Anyway, something to think on. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. (Here’s the Sizzler Video I mentioned)
Those attempts seem full-assed to me; it’s just that none of them worked, from ThinkGeek to mobile devices. They had some pilot stores in a few locations, tragically rolled out just before lockdown, to see what kinds of concepts might stick. The one that seemed the most promising was one where it was like a gaming lounge, sort of like a LAN center but with consoles and such as well. There’s a non-Gamestop location like that near me but with way more floor space than your typical Gamestop. Given that most retail has gone online and digital, and brick-and-mortar is transitioning into services and experiences, this one made the most sense to me.
I remember Dallas-Ft Worth had one of those and it was awesome. Something like 20 bucks an hour, and I could go play any game there while waiting for a plane. There definitely needs to be more “Group gaming” areas, and that would be something I’d invest in.
In our suburban nightmare we live in, kids don’t have enough places to go be kids, and one of the things I did was lan/group game with people. Now there’s no space for that, and a rentable place would be ideal
There’s a lan/vr arcade near me, has like 40 super high end gaming rigs… they only get busy when there’s a big event like a non-local tournament or something. We also have multiple pinball/arcade bars, and most of them also have some retro consoles set up. One of the 4-man arcade machines at one of the places even has something like a retropi installed in it and you can pick between hundreds of games up to GameCube era, but nobody really ever plays those either. (The pinball is the draw).
Can’t see this doing a lot better, at least not in places with options.
Yeah, if it worked, it would not be as prolific as Gamestop was 20 years ago, but they’d survive as a business named Gamestop, potentially. Brick and mortar dedicated to video game sales doesn’t make sense anymore.