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GameStops in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Vawn

Vawn

Banned
My son has been asking me to take him to GameStop after hearing how cool it was from a friend. So, we went and I was shocked at how different it was.

The store had over 50 gaming stations. Each one had a PS4, Xbox One and a Switch hooked up with a ton of games installed on each. Every station had a pretty slick looking gaming chair, a set of headphones with microphone. And each is completely free as long as you sign up for their free membership.

They were hosting a birthday party while we were there with about 10 birthday guests playing Fortnite together.

They also had two larger screens with couches where people were playing various games such as Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros.

I don't know how great of a business model this is, but it was pretty impressive. If they had this by my house when I was a kid, I would have lived here.

I was curious how many of the stores were like this, as the section to buy new and used games was shockingly small, so I asked a worker. I thought maybe one or two in all of Tulsa were like this with all of the rest being traditional stores.

To my surprise, he said all of them except one were exactly like this one in all of Tulsa. Even more surprising to hear was that only Tulsa currently has these stores. Apparently, we are the test market.

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I just thought I'd share, as apparently not many have had a chance to check out these new stores. If you happen to be close to Tulsa, it may be worth checking out.
 
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That's pretty cool. I think this is a great way to build your local gaming community and that community will give back to the company.
 
That's definitely a step up. We don't have those. We have a whole lot of stores with their lousy marketing ads. Then when you walk in it's basically a novelty shop until you see the games on the wall.

For every GameStop LAN store, there's like 20 ad centric dumpster fires.
 
Wow, another terrible idea from the mensa members heading gamestop. Looks great, but there is no profit in lan centers/game cafes in North America. It's a dead industry and the cash strapped dying gamestop is investing money in this? It's almost as if they are trying to see how quickly they can claim bankruptcy and dissolve the company. Still looks great though
 
Until it closed a couple of years ago, there was a place like this called Game On next to a sushi place I frequent. It looked depressing from the outside. I never went in.
 
Man, there was a place kinda like this near where I lived back in like 2001. It was a room with like 15 PCs all connected via LAN and with internet access.

For most of us who couldn't afford PCs that could run the newest games like Counterstrike, we'd go there and pay by the hour. They even hosted competitions and stuff.

It was really fucking awesome, but it went out of business pretty fast. I still remember the 40-something Mexican guy who was in there every single time we visited playing Everquest :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Dafuq?! That actually looks like something fun and that I would want to spend time and money at. Are we sure this is really a GameStop?
 
That's legitimately really cool. Would've been nice if GS actually did that like 10-15 years ago, when their reputation was really starting to tank.
 
There used to be a store similar to this in my town when I was growing up. Though back then you paid per hour (I think it was like 2-3 dollars?) to play whatever games they had across a number of PCs, consoles, and arcades. They hosted various card game events, D&D nights, and also sold various nerd/geek culture items. This was back before the massive casual gaming boom of the Wii. Sadly it went out of business 10-12 years ago.
 
This was my idea for their future. Not sure if it will work but that's about their only hope is it to turn it into a gaming hangout.
 
Meanwhile gamestop is closing in the rest of the world.

Impressive store, but I am actually pretty sad gamestop is going away.
 
Yeah they've done this to a few GAME stores in the UK too. Not many though, the only one I've seen with mon own yeux is in Milton Keynes.

Still though, the entire business model is based around kids. How sustainable is it?
 
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*Nightwing said:
Wow, another terrible idea from the mensa members heading gamestop. Looks great, but there is no profit in lan centers/game cafes in North America. It's a dead industry and the cash strapped dying gamestop is investing money in this? It's almost as if they are trying to see how quickly they can claim bankruptcy and dissolve the company. Still looks great though
Click to expand...

I don't think its a terrible idea at all think about it. It's like a gym membership. Instead of gym machines that costs you a god awful amount u have pc's with games and consoles for people that don't have access towards it. Much like gym equipment.

Specially in area's with poor neighbourhoods.
 
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Internet cafes became obsolete once they banned smoking in them.

Why are they still popular in Asia? Smoking.

Think about it.

Also, Tulsa is in Oklahoma, right? I learnt that from movies.

On a serious note, that does look pretty cool.
 
I can see it now. People sitting there playing in a tournament while the Gamestop employee is asking them if they want to trade in their phone, sign for a membership, reserve some games, etc.
 
Ok but I'm confused how this profitable? It's more space to rent and most of it isn't even dedicated to product. Won't most people just come in to play for free? Also this won't work in rural areas as I feel you need a constant flow of people to make it not awkward and not just one or two
 
Roronoa Zoro said:
Ok but I'm confused how this profitable? It's more space to rent and most of it isn't even dedicated to product. Won't most people just come in to play for free? Also this won't work in rural areas as I feel you need a constant flow of people to make it not awkward and not just one or two
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Yeah, I don't know either. They offer a paid membership ($15 per year), but that just gets you stuff like Game Informer magazine, etc.

Maybe Tulsa is just a "free" text-based and they'll eventually make it pay-to-play if it catches on.

I also don't know how much the birthday parties cost. The guy working said they are beginning to do a lot of those as word spreads.
 
That is pretty amazing. That's the type of store that will bring people in. They should close some of their one too many stores and just implement this in all the stores they keep open. Have tournaments and all that good stuff.

Are one of those locations the retro themed store? I started a thread on it a few months back. It's located in Oklahoma as well.

www.neogaf.com

Take A Look Inside GameStop's New, Retro-Themed Experimental Store

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/take-a-look-inside-gamestops-new-retro-themed-expe/1100-6469885/ Earlier this year, GameStop announced that it would experiment with new store layouts--focused around eSports, retro games, and more--at some of its locations in the United States. Now, video has...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com
 
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dolabla said:
Are one of those locations the retro themed store? I started a thread on it a few months back. It's located in Oklahoma as well.
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Not in the Tulsa metroplex. That's what I found strange.

I figured what made most sense was maybe have a third of an area's GameStops to be this Internet Cafe type of place, a third those new retro style places and a third more like the traditional stores. Perhaps give them different subnames to differentiate them, like "GameStop Gamer's Hub", etc.

But, that's not how they did it here. They are ALL, except one, just like the one I posted here. The last one is one in a shopping mall that they kept as a traditional GameStop.
 
We had a local store similar to that idea, but not nearly as big.

It was awesome. Reminds me of arcades back in the day. But it didn't seem particularly profitable. Closed eventually.
 
Too bad it's still the same old shitty company that it's always been behind it all. Just because they have a cool and wow factor to that store doesn't change the fact it's still a terrible company with shitty policies and procedures behind it all.

Lamestop at its core is still a shit company, no matter how much they dress it up.
 
Vawn said:
Not in the Tulsa metroplex. That's what I found strange.

I figured what made most sense was maybe have a third of an area's GameStops to be this Internet Cafe type of place, a third those new retro style places and a third more like the traditional stores. Perhaps give them different subnames to differentiate them, like "GameStop Gamer's Hub", etc.

But, that's not how they did it here. They are ALL, except one, just like the one I posted here. The last one is one in a shopping mall that they kept as a traditional GameStop.
Click to expand...

I really hope this spreads across the rest of the Gamestop's. Heck, they could do one big building and put both the retro and this theme all in one building and get rid of the 50 different locations all within 3 miles of each other thing they currently do.
 
I guess this is the future for GS... host parties, streamers etc. Sell drinks and high markup items. Have the gaming stuff in the back and just do preorders. Wish they would sell more expensive controllers like razer and astro..... They seem to avoid high price items.... Obviously due to risk of not selling but they could offsetthat with the new model.
 
Gargus said:
Too bad it's still the same old shitty company that it's always been behind it all. Just because they have a cool and wow factor to that store doesn't change the fact it's still a terrible company with shitty policies and procedures behind it all.

Lamestop at its core is still a shit company, no matter how much they dress it up.
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It's a retail store. Calm dowm
 
Bryank75 said:
I guess this is the future for GS... host parties, streamers etc. Sell drinks and high markup items. Have the gaming stuff in the back and just do preorders. Wish they would sell more expensive controllers like razer and astro..... They seem to avoid high price items.... Obviously due to risk of not selling but they could offsetthat with the new model.
Click to expand...

My son is already asking to have his birthday there. I haven't asked about prices or other details yet.
 
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