Eurogamer

Today we popped along to the launch of GAME's Xbox-only shop in London and took some photos!

The Boxpark, Shoreditch shop is GAME's first Xbox-exclusive branch and, as you'd expect, only stocks Microsoft products.

It opened today, and, today only, the new, sleeker Xbox 360 model Microsoft announced during its E3 press conference last week is a cool £100.

Our reporter on the ground Robert Purchese described the shop as tiny, "like a corridor". The Boxpark container area the shop calls home is packed with other stores of the same size. It's a "very trendy, experimental area", Purchese reports.

The Xbox store itself is on the upper floor and "tucked away a bit", so it may struggle to be found by passers by. But, it seems, footfall isn't the point. Rather, the shop is designed to get people hands-on with Microsoft products and, come November, the Xbox One.

Right now here are a couple of demo pods, some Microsoft Surface tablets and lots of Xbox peripherals and Microsoft Points cards. Those will be redundant soon enough - Microsoft is switching to real-world currency for the Xbox One launch.

"To my eye it looks like the video game shop of the future," Purchese said, "On an experimentally small scale at the moment."

We spoke to GAME regional boss Kevin McFeely, who wouldn't give anything away with regards to doing the same with similar Sony and Nintendo "concept" stores. He did stress, however, that GAME is working with all partners and looking at opportunities. Whether these opportunities materialise into shops remains to be seen.

According to McFeely, GAME wanted to provide customers with a different type of shopping experience, and admitted Apple's retail stores were an inspiration for the Xbox-only shop design. "It's a very good example of how this type of concept would work. There's no question the Apple concept is very successful. I don't think anyone could argue with that."

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Nice little space. Speaking of "game shops of the future", it would be cool if you could browse the whole library of games on a screen with the controller and have the demos/trailers ready to play instead of having loads of shelves with just the back of the box to read.

That's how all videogame stores look here in Mexico, except here they're not as stylish.

Looks neat. Like that there's something to rest your rump on.

I actually think this is a positive step for shops in the future. Space is at a premium on the high street and shops becoming smaller, more space efficient and more specialised is important for them to survive the digital age.