Some of my favorite gaming memories come from when I was a kid and I would run down to the local department store with some money from the teenage jobs that I had and I didn't really even have any idea what I was going to buy for a new game.
We didn't have internet back then and while we did do a bunch of research as far as magazines were concerned, our exposure to a wide array of games was pretty limited especially since we were at the whim of the stores as far as what they were going to stock.
I recall one day walking into a store that I don't think exists anymore called Montgomery Ward's and they had a display case and there was a meager 12 games or so inside of it. Thankfully one of those games ended up being Final Fantasy 2 or 3 - not sure which - and it ended up being one of my favorite games of all time.
Later in life, even when I was in college I would head to the Toys 'R Us and peruse the aisles and peek through hundreds of game choices. They had what I considered to be a really good system at that time in that there was no threat of theft because the physical games were not even out there, you would just take a ticket to the counter and they would retrieve the game from "the back."
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These days, retail outlets are hanging on by a thread and I would imagine that it is only a matter of time before they disappear altogether - which is a real shame in my mind but the industry has kind of moved on to online only purchases.
While I prefer physical copies of the games I play, I can understand why they would do this because there are less costs involved on the manufacturer's part, the stock never runs out, and we can continue to sit on our fat asses shopping in the PS Store or whatever the X-box store is called. I don't know about one. I haven't owned a MS system since the first Xbox.
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I still really like Game Stop, which is the only video-game specific store that remains in my area but their days are numbered since new-age systems for the most part, don't require a physical copy of a game at all. Some of the new systems don't even have a disk drive so what are you going to buy at the store?
The last time that I went into Game Stop it was mostly Nintendo-centric because those games are still physical in nature if you want them to be. Other than that, the store was mostly filled with older systems and collectibles. So I guess they are doing as best they can but this isn't enough.
In a way it is kind of shitty because there is no longer a market for 2nd hand games, which might have been the objective of the console manufacturers in the first place. Used games were always a lot of fun to me because I am not an early adopter of games for the most part and I used to love being able to go in there and buy 3 or 4 games for the price of one - even if they were older titles.
Now I don't even think that is possible anymore.
More and more of my friends are moving to pirate systems where the software is intentionally not uploaded and they can just get any game that they want from various torrent sites. I don't like this idea but the industry is basically doing it to themselves. In my mind you can let us have used games or games borrowed from a friend for 40 years then all of a sudden cut that avenue off and not expect some sort of blowback from the gamers.
I read that Game Stop closed more than 300 stores in 2019 and we can expect this to continue down the same road that Blockbuster Video did in the 90's and early 2000's. It is simply a dying industry and Game Stop announced in late 2020 that they plan to close 1000 more stores. I don't know if this actually happened but I reckon it did.
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I recently read that nearly half of all of Game Stop's revenue came from trade-in's and reselling of used merch, and like I said before, unless you are still gaming on a PS3 or a Dreamcast or something like that, this is no longer an option.
Game Stop briefly tried to offer digital incentives to shop in a physical store including better deals than were available in the various digital stores as well as customer loyalty programs and for a time it was working to a certain degree but then Sony went and pulled all digital merchandise from their shops, which was a huge blow to them.
I will miss shopping in person because it was a big part of my youth but I guess times move on and the next generation of gamers likely wont even know that anyone EVER bought physical copies of games.
It's tragic, but inevitable. Game Stop and other retail outlets better do a complete overhaul of their business model soon or they are just delaying the end which I think will happen in the next couple of years.
Seeing this made me think about the old gameshop place I used to want to visit with my parents.
I think the age of the big gaming chains is gone. Even now there is only one that I know of (Gamestop). I was never a huge fan of Gamestop mainly because I liked the places they replaced better (namely Electronics Boutique and Software Etc.). But yeah, I definitely remember going to Toys R Us and browsing their fairly large collection. Of course you could still do that up until about 5 years ago when they went bankrupt.
However, just as with arcades, I think there will continue to be niche gaming stores. Arcades today can usually be found as part of a specialty bar where you can pay one price and play everything as long as you want. There is one near me that has a combo of classic arcade games, game systems, and custom built machines that are probably running some kind of emulators. Interestingly they have some classic arcade games retrofitted with flat screen displays but I guess CRTs are getting hard to find now (not to mention expensive).
With game stores, I would expect stores that sell a combination of used games (including vintage), limited release physical copies and physical copies for systems that still support them (if they continue to do so in the future). Many years ago (circa 1994-1998) there was a used game store in the mall near where I lived called Rhino Games. They had a huge selection and I loved that place.
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You are almost certainly correct. I would love to visit one of those arcades you are talking about. I recently went to a Dave and Busters and was kind of disappointed with the gaming choices because these are not games for gamers, they were bar games but I suppose that makes sense because D and B's is first and foremost a bar.
I have yet to go to a Dave and Busters but the closest one to me that i know of is probably about an hour away. However, there are now at least two independent bar/arcades near me and I went to one for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was a pretty good experience. I really wish that Chuck E Cheese still stocked some classic arcade games. They tend to have a couple of newer arcade games but most of what they have are prize redemption machines of one type or another now. Oh well, at least they still have Skee-Ball.
Skee-Ball never gets old. When I was a kid Chuck-E-Cheese was basically my Disneyland. It probably still would be if they had, like you say, some classic games. I wouldn't mind some pinball as well.
I wonder what that would even be these days. Probably something with guns as controllers or some sort of dancing game.
I think you are right as I noticed lines of gaming clothing now taking up a chunk of the store space. I think if they offered more online they have a chance as second hand games at a cheap enough price would still be in demand.
It's kind of sad in a nostalgic way, they are shifting to collectibles, accessories, hardware and merch in general. I don't think they will disappear tho, just get smaller and fewer. That abundant aesthetic of full shelves is dying to be replaced with other kind of collections, like posters and figurines. Not sure I like it, but it is what it is.
I like collectibles and what not so I will support them as much as I can but it's difficult to argue with Sony and Xbox when they basically say "we don't need you anymore" and pull their stock from the stores. To me, perusing the online stores isn't near as interesting as actually being in the stores but I guess this is just how it was always going to be.