Some examples I have thought of include: * put 3D printers in the stores and sell custom objects based off of your gamer profile.
* convert the stores into a gamer bar and show eSports tournaments.
* host LAN parties or move into tabletop games
Gamestop pivoting to a gamer bar seems incredibly unlikely. Retail is not restaurants -- the business logic is all sorts of different -- and likely zoning issues would prevent many locations from suddenly becoming restaurants.
I've talked to several owners of failed e-sport restaurants. They all say the same thing. It's sad, but also the reason you don't see tons of them around, even if gaming as an industry makes billions of dollars.
But who knows, maybe now is not the right time. Besides, most GameStop locations are pretty small and not really zoned for a bar. It was an interesting thought though.
Every now and then I see a new one pop up - usually focused more on consoles rather than PC games, but they seem to inevitably go out of business.
Neither am I, but based on strong anecdotal evidence from every trip I've made to Micro Center in the last couple of years, I suspect your suspicion is accurate. Especially when I did a custom PC build a couple years back, and had to visit the support department due to my motherboard needing a firmware update to run with the CPU I'd picked - I found myself all but constantly tripping over infants in Fortnite T-shirts who, I assume, had talked their parents into spending thousands of dollars on top-tier gaming rigs with the argument that it would help them develop a marketable skill.
Good on them, I say; at a similar age, I did much the same. (Athlon 600 and a Voodoo3 3000! Back when Alienware was still an upstart doing white-box builds...) But, yes, all of that's to say that I think you're absolutely right, and GameStop would be very well advised to pivot in a similar direction to what you describe. They'd need to poach some expertise from Micro Center, which would probably be expensive, and while I suspect they'd get good bulk pricing on components, there'd still be significant capex there too. But there are a lot of places in the US where GameStop is and Micro Center isn't.
Granted, I think the days of the Internet café are over for good in the US, so as a hangout hub I don't see it working. But as a place to go to get custom gaming builds plus support, peripherals, and upsells for same, I think there's real potential there, especially if you're also selling all the consoles and appurtenances thereunto. And most especially if doing all this puts you in the right place to be on the leading edge of the consumer VR boom, when that finally comes...
The reality is gaming is moving into an interesting extra-social space (complementing social spaces like TikTok), where a lot of the kids I know use these games as a core means of socializing. This is especially true after the pandemic lockdown.
> GameStop and Microsoft have entered into a multiyear agreement that gives the video game retailer a cut of every digital purchase made on any Xbox consoles it directly sells going forward, Ars Technica reports.
With someone at the helm that can negotiate a deal like this, I'm not worried about GME.
The idea that they can pivot into tabletop hubs has been raised a few times, but I just don't see it - if you've ever talked to a tabletop game store owner, you'd realise that the "FLGS" model doesn't support that many businesses in a given area - even at 1/10th the density of gamestops, most are kept afloat by high margin items like magic the gathering cards or warhammer minis/paints. The tabletop/board game community stuff is treated either as a marketing expense or owner hobby. I don't see it sustaining a chain of Gamestop's size without serious downsizing.
Gamer bars obviously have licensing requirements like any other bar. Don't know how loose it is in the US, but good luck getting a bar approved in the middle of a shopping center in my country. Also, most gamestops just aren't that big.
If they can capitalize on the goodwill and build products that people like and not over-monetize them I think they are in a position to do well over the long term as, hopefully, a lot of these stock holders are actually long term holders.
3D printing is SLOW. A figurine only 2-3 inches tall could be relatively quick (under 4 hours), but would lack detail. Something in the 6-8" height could look good, but would take 8+ hours to print. From what I've read, most private 3D printer owners charge about $2/hour for 3D printing (plus the cost of filament and a print setup fee of some sort).
> * convert the stores into a gamer bar and show eSports tournaments.
Most GameStop locations are way too small for this. If they purchased larger venues, then they're competing with Dave & Busters, Big Al's, Round1, and possibly regional chains/locations I haven't heard of.
> * host LAN parties or move into tabletop games
I don't know how well the LAN thing would perform in the American market. I've seen pay-per-hour PC gaming locations years ago, but they don't last. The demand just isn't there, especially when game streaming like Stadia is a thing.
Tabletop game stores don't make a lot of money unless they can sell a LOT of M:TG cards and Warhammer figurines, I expect WH to die off with 3D printing being a thing.
> host LAN parties or move into tabletop games
The concept of “gamer bars” is woefully unexplored and one day I hope to retire early and start up one. Get space at a prime location, completely retrofit it, make it state of the art technology-wise.
The goal would be to make it a spot that high profile streamers would book months in advance for special events.
GameStop is positioned to do this kind of thing but at nation-wide scale.
It'd make sense for them to offer some way to do this online and pick up in-store (or, hey, ship directly). But, it might bring people into the stores or you may have people that want to "feel" examples of the material they're printing the item in (assuming it's offered with different options, which would be a good idea).
[0] I'm thinking FDM here, mostly, but you're basically taking a material, heating it to the "right" melting point, applying it to a surface where gravity and controlled cooling cause the layer to adhere securely to the previous layer. The printer can only print as fast as it can reliably melt/adhere the material, any faster and you either under-extrude or fail to adhere and end up with spaghetti.
NOTE: I tried to pitch this to a former employer of mine and they didn't really see the market.
If it took 15 seconds, or even five minutes, to 3d-print a model like that on a desktop machine, then sure, there might be something here. But the Stratasys J750 production printer that Shapeways uses for multicolor prints [0] requires, per its user manual [1], "between several hours to several days" to complete a print, depending on size. It also weighs half a ton, needs a room and about 3 kilowatts to itself, and those are where its environment requirements start [2] - not to mention that the uncured printing materials appear to be quite toxic, judging by the bulk of safety, first aid, and hazardous materials handling discussion in the user manual. And that manual is what you're meant to use as an aide-memoire after being trained by a Stratasys field engineer in how to operate the machine at all.
The machine is apparently designed mainly to print anatomical models accurate enough for surgeons to practice on them, and in that context its engineering requirements are reasonable. They're also reasonable for a company like Shapeways, which entirely revolves around 3D printing and can arrange its physical plant to suit. I won't even say it's impossible to cram something like this into a strip mall, but it'd probably need to be next door to an outpatient MRI clinic or something like that, to get the services it needs without the cost and permitting of having the runs put in - you'd have to pick the site to suit the process, and GameStop locations aren't picked that way. And even after all that, the print time is still a killer.
In theory, sure, it would make sense. But in practice the tech just isn't there yet. About all that leaves, I think, would be "BOPIS for Shapeways", and I doubt that'd be a big enough draw to be worth the trouble - at that point, it probably makes more sense for the studios to do something like Hero Forge, and cut GameStop out entirely.
[0] https://www.shapeways.com/materials/multi-color-polyjet
[1] https://www.stratasys.com/-/media/files/documentation/polyje...
[2] https://www.stratasys.com/-/media/files/printer-spec-sheets/...
You can only slightly "buy your way out of the speed problem", which is as much dependent on the material as it is the capabilities of the machine. An 18 hour print for a small item is not unusual at all, for me, but I'm on a pretty simple printer.
A stratasys-style machine wouldn't make sense for this application. I think "high-end desktop quality" FDM would suffice for accessories/GameStop (with, perhaps, an option to get items printed in aluminum/other exotic materials shipped -- partner with someone), so the aim would be to find a reliable, enclosed (with appropriate filtration[0]), FDM (or similar price/quality), pick up 3-5 of them per store -- different sizes -- and spend a mint building software for your customers to use to interface with the printers[1] and automate the hell out of the ugly parts of the printing process (print-bed surface prep/part removal, maintenance and cleaning). And make absolutely sure the model has every convenience feature (like bed leveling, temperature controlled build chamber)
I'd probably limit material types to one (production) and one (support, when necessary). Optimize all of the hardware for the printers to the specific characteristics of that material and choose a material that prints easily/quickly -- PLA is a reasonable choice, prints pretty quickly but is brittle/fails over time and has a low melting point, ABS has several toxicity concerns and is finicky as hell to print with, but it's cheap and when it prints "right", it's durable.
It sounds crazy to do something like this with desktop 3D printers, but it makes the most sense. $1000 will get you one hell of a box with the ability to print in multiple colors and with more than one hot-end. It's probably, as you mention, not quite there yet -- I know from personal experience, messing around with the slicer software can take some time. There'd be a lot of software to be written and probably some additional hardware to design to fit the purposes of the stores printing needs. But, I guess you'd give the staff something to do while waiting for customers to not come in and buy games. /s :)
While they're at it, throw in a large CNC/laser cutter, re-tool to sell dev boards/robotics equipment, replace "Game" with "Hacker" and open up several hundred hacker-spaces around the country. Perhaps that would have worked better for Radio Shack. But I'm only half-joking -- every time I walk into small-time game/hobby/computer shops I find that the (often young) staff there are makers and would fit right in with a little training.
[0] This, too, depends on the material. And you might need to call in the lawyers/etc to figure out how things are going to have to be designed to avoid a future class-action from your employees/customers due to exposure to fumes. ABS is known to be problematic; it's also cheap and has many other desirable properties.
[1] The good news is that there is a ton of open-source pieces to start with.
It's a tough spot.
(1) 3D Printing -- really good idea; I'm rehabbing my 3D printer for my kids, this evening, so they can print Among Us characters. If I didn't have a 3D printer, I might consider that sort of option, but I'd probably go online first. And that's kind of the problem they need to find a way to pivot away from.
(2) Gamer Bar -- I think a few have panned this idea. I love it, but not for GameStop. Their locations are unlikely to be ideal for restaurant style-businesses. And while it's a different kind of business, they'd still fall under the same regulations which would require substantial reworking of their retail outlets. Assuming "bar" means "alcohol", that's going to knock out many of the retail locations -- any where getting a liquor license/landlord approval isn't possible/practical/affordable. I have no idea if this would be popular, or if it would fall victim to "teen dance club" problems[0] ... often the way I imagine things "should be" aren't they way they turn out :).
(3) Tabletop/LAN Parties -- Not sure LAN parties are all that useful these days, but maybe? Moving into other forms of games seems really logical. Most hardcore gamers that I know are also into a variety of adult board games and all have disposable income.
Assuming the idea is "stay retail and keep many of the retail locations open", I think the biggest problem is finding a product that they can actually sell. I know people still buy games in physical formats, but that's ending at some point. All of my game/software purchases are digital. All of my console purchases are online and all of my used/pre-owned purchases are craigslist/marketplaces.
I stopped using GameStop to recoup the value of obsolete games/consoles because the prices they offered for my used stuff was never competitive and the cost to purchase (often beat-up) used items from the store were similarly not competitive. Granted, it's been years. Offering to sell used products on consignment or with a firm, low, commission would change my mind. Offering both options would cover everyone.
Maybe going back to 3D printing -- perhaps providing customizable accessories to a variety of console components (i.e. grips for controllers, knobs with icons on them, etc) in-store might be an option. I don't know if that's going to be the end-all, but the cost is reasonable considering it offers a huge inventory on-demand. Focus on covering accessories that are niche but popular and offer customization since they're print-on-demand.
[0] Where I live, there were a few notorious "Teen Dance Clubs" that charged cover, didn't serve alcohol, and were pretty much the most popular place for the police to visit any night they were operating for all kinds of minor crime.
I really like the idea of a "Teen Dance Club". There is honestly no place for young people to hang out. We used to go to the skating rink or walk around the local shopping mall, but the rinks are almost all gone and malls have made being a teenager illegal.
This club did not serve alcohol, but from personal experience, alcohol/weed were not hard to come by. People would throw shots of hard liquor into the $5.00 cokes, there were regular "fights" usually originating from some barely-past-puberty-knob deciding some other kid was looking in the general direction of the female to which said knob was attracted.
This is a problem at most businesses catering to teenagers, unfortunately. But it's more of a problem at certain kinds of businesses. We have three skating rinks within about 20 miles (all were closed and not sure all survived). One of them was around when I was a kid and there were occasional problems, then, but really nothing compared to what I saw at one of the two "Teen Clubs" I visited. I think part of it is that rinks (roller/ice) cater to families and teenagers. I have 4 kids. If we're out and some teenager is misbehaving, the words "knock it off" have been known to fly out of my mouth with immediate effect. It doesn't matter that there's a large number of unsupervised teenagers, the number of parents -- especially ones that aren't uncomfortable stepping into things -- offsets the grief the "bad teens" can create for everyone else.
I hear ya, though. We used to hang out at malls, rinks, hell we had a whole abandoned stadium that we could roller blade on for $5 on the weekends[0]. Now the few malls that remain are outdoors, which is awesome when it's 16 outside... it's as if they're trying to get me to buy everything online. We have a laser-tag place that feeds you and let you play unlimited from 8:00-midnight for $20[1] and a few others, but they're all closed for the moment. It is awful for kids right now.
[0] The Pontiac SilverDome actually rented out skates/inlines and let you roller blade around the interior walkway. Even when it was busy it was hard to tell because of the wide walkways designed to serve depressed Lion's fans.
[1] Oddly it was owned by a local (Christian) cult run by a chiropractor; I took my kids there nearly every weekend of the winter for two years and everyone who patronized the place, teenagers, kids and adults, all enjoying themselves and never an issue. The only hint about the religion of the owners was that they played Christian Pop/Rock over the speakers -- makes me wonder if blasting Jesus music calms teenagers? :)