What's old is new again: GameStop is opening retro stores at existing locations

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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Why it matters: GameStop is going all in on retro. The video game retailer is opening a series of GameStop Retro stores where they'll sell classic games and consoles to nostalgia seekers.

GameStop announced the new initiative in a brief post on X. Despite the suggestion that these will be new establishments, the store locator seems to suggest they are existing GameStop locations that are now simply selling retro goodies.

The teaser references a number of classic platforms including the Nintendo 64, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Sega Dreamcast, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, and Sega Saturn, among others. Presumably, both games and consoles will be available although inventory will no doubt vary by location.

It may seem like an odd move, but GameStop could be on to something here.

As publishers continue to focus on digital distribution, brick and mortar retailers are feeling the squeeze. Selling physical goods is their bread and butter, and retro goods allow them to continue doing just that. What's more, classic games are experiencing a resurgence and GameStop no doubt wants to take advantage of the opportunity.

As with most things, pricing will be a huge factor here. What sort of premium is GameStop going to put on its retro merchandise? If it's fair market value or even slightly above to make a profit, I think most would be alright with that. Anything beyond that and some will no doubt feel like they are being taken advantage of.

A quick check with the store locator for Retro stores in my area revealed only one out of at least four stores I know of nearby. Perhaps more will be added in the coming weeks and months, but only time will tell.

Do you plan to check out GameStop's new retro offerings? I'm personally curious to see if my local store has anything more exotic than the usual NES or SNES games. Maybe I'll finally achieve my childhood goal of getting that Sega CD after all?

Image credit: Jens Mahnke

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What's old is new again: GameStop is opening retro stores at existing locations

 
This was one of Gamestop's ultimate fails - getting out of the older used game/system market. You didn't need every store to carry this stuff, but just a few stores here and there. It's been a good while since I looked, but 10+ years ago there were 6 Gamestop stores within a 20 mile driving radius of me.

I used to actually hop between the stores about every 6-8 weeks and peruse their PC games. I don't know if there are that many anymore, but even if there are only 3 of them left 1 should have been a spot to still shop/trade/sell/buy older games/systems.

I understand that Gamestop tried to adapt to the changing of how games were handled back then (physical media) to how they are now (mostly digital) and they started to lose out on a lot of sales because of how things were changing. But failure on their end to not turn back towards earlier gaming systems/games 5+ years ago is failure on leadership.

If they want to be fair in pricing they'll need to keep on top of prices on other sites such as Ebay and Amazon and so on. They'll need to make use of electric shelf labels to keep prices current and change things on the fly. Someone may be okay with spending an couple of extra bucks to get an item in their hands while at the store, but if they can find the same item online and save $10 and have the item in a couple of days they'll go that route instead.
 
Ya’ll are wrong. They have decent prices and buy 2 get one deals apply to retro too.

I have been popping into my local gamestops for a few months checking out their retro inventory

Believe it or not, Ive found about 80% of their retro items are just below Ebay/Pricecharting which is great. Makes it fun to pop in and see what new they received.

2 weeks ago I picked up Kirby for NES in great condition and a CIB copy of Wind Waker for Gamecube.
 
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