Poor hardcore. They have had a long series of set backs lately. Ever since the DS came out, it has been downhill for the hardcore. With Wii, it became even worse. But one sanctuary for True Gaming the hardcore could always count on, as if a Church Of The Hardcore, was Game Stop.
From a gamedaily story, we read this:
BIZ: Many people view GameStop as a specialty retailer. How has the mainstreaming of gamers, consumers who traditionally would shop at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, impacted your stores?(I bold the cool parts.)
It just shows conventional wisdom, which in this industry is nothing more than the hardcore consensus on message boards, of Wal-Mart, Target, and other mass retailers ‘taking over gaming’ because of the cursed ‘casuals’, was all hot air. Or is it? Is Game Stop spinning on this?
Likely, no. Nintendo is a customer orientated company; it is their driving philosophy. It is very believable that Nintendo would do research on the buying habits of the New Market, and it would be very Nintendo for them to point out where they recieved their greatest customer satisfaction at. While I don’t connect customer service and Gamestop together well, consider the comparison to the mass market chains like Wal-Mart. The electronics dork person is not going to help you out in Wal-Mart. For all the criticism against Game Stop, one thing is true: the employees at Game Stop are game nerds. While many of us might think they are ignorant about video games, they are geniuses compared to strange old man in charge of the electronics section at some of these mass retail stores.
DD: Nintendo just did some research. They looked at Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, all the mass merchants and us. They focused on how satisfied Nintendo customers were with experience in stores. Customer satisfaction was higher in our stores than any other. We’re putting our stores in centers with Targets, Wal-Marts, Best Buys, Circuit Cities and mass merchants.
BIZ: So the Wii revolution that has swept the industry over the past two years hasn’t impacted your stores?
DD: We’ve been targeting the broader audience for quite a while. This mainstream gaming wave of the Wii isn’t something that snuck up on us. We think we do a good job of catering to it. We think our real estate is conducive to it. We know our customer service is superior and assortment is superior to mass merchants. And our value message is superior. You can trade in the games you no longer play and get cash. And that’s important in these economic times.
BIZ: How do you target the casual gamer?
DD: We’ve done a lot of TV marketing this summer. We sponsored Joey Logano’s NASCAR this summer, which clearly is not targeting the hardcore gamer. Most of our marketing has been targeting more casual gamers. We think we’re well positioned to cater to both the hardcore and casual gamers moving forward.
BIZ: What are your thoughts on Wii, a console that’s still impossible to find after two years?
DD: I’ve never seen this type of demand before. I know they’re making more, but we’re still short like everybody else. I think we’ll have a continued shortage this Christmas.