Squirtle Squirtle Squirtle.... (I shed a tear... Those kind of stores don't exist over here... Getting a last generation game here is next to impossible... Fuck my trainers country!)

Appreciated! Everyone on this planet is unique on their own way. Some people are making fun of people, because they have different interests. That's a extremely bad quality of a person, making fun or judging someone else for what they do or like, because it's different of what they always do or are used to. Everyone should appreciate or at least not judge someone else. At the end, if we are happy with being ourself that's important. We should always support people arround us for who they are. Don't change them, don't tell them who they should be, but support them for who they are.

I've actually talked to the owner about this sort of thing before, and he's shared a fair amount of info. In no particular order, here's what I gathered from keeping my ears open and asking ocassional questions:

Basically, the store opened in late 2011, which was apparently a terrible time to open a gaming store since the generation was winding down. However, over the years, he claims to have little to complain about besides the normal stuff that comes with managing a store. (Such as that time I people hid the My Little Pony dolls around the store in ambush positions).

Digital Downloads are apparently NOT a big issue. They are prevalent on mobile devices and PC's, but handhelds and consoles continue to make most of their software revenue from retail. Even the Vita, for all the fans' talk about being a "download-based" platform, apparently sells far more full price games at retail than digitally. The larger hard drives on newer consoles are largely cancelled out by the increasing size of games (a 500 GB hard drive is not that impressive in a world where games are often over 25 GB, and some games have stuff like mandatory 7 GB patches), and internet access is still expensive and slow enough in America so that a for lot of people, buying games digitally is a longer and more expensive than going to a store and doing so.

Online retailers could be a threat, but don't offer some of the things that a physical store offers. For example, no prices on shipping and handling, the ability to ask the guy behind the desk for advice, better deal for large numbers of used games, immediate satisfaction, impulse purchases, etc. Even if online retail became truly dominant, there will probably be a sizable niche for brick and mortar stores.

This store also has the benefit of being able to arrange events. Every weekend, you have people signing up for tournaments to play some iteration of Smash Bros, Pokemon X/Y, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. These people buy snacks and beverages, packs of cards as necessary, and a portion of the sign-up fee goes to the store. Not to mention birthday parties for kids, which can be held in the back area with the TV's (there's even more space than I show in the pictures) and is VERY fun for kids, since they can pick from thousands of games in the store to play.

The main thing the boss has complained about recently is not about the competition, but the products. According to him, 2013 had a LOT of disappointments from his sales point of view (the Wii U, Disney Infinity, God of War: Ascension, Gears of War Judgement, etc) and little in the way of new blood. Furthermore, developers have been slow in supporting new consoles, so people aren't buying as many new games as usual. The biggest new products as of late are the actual PS4 and Xbone, but these actually turn stores a bit less profit than games despite their much higher prices, and are hard for smaller stores to get their hands on anyway.

Short Version: Online Stores and Digital Retail are bearable for a physical store. A lackluster games industry isn't.

In their defense, the scenario is very different here in America than it is in Japan. Japan has a fraction of the population and many times more copies of games like Chrono Trigger. Still, I thank the RPG gods that Chrono Trigger got a DS re-release.

Thanks!

This was the first used game store I had much experience with, and I wasted hours just looking through everything they had. Even the bad games had interesting stories behind them. Eventually, I started actually buying my games there because I was in so often, and developed a kind of relationship with the employees where I'll sometimes help people find what they need while the guy at the counter is being swamped.

Maybe they're that cheap in Europe, but on US eBay, they usually go for $20 or $25, without the battery guarantee. Even people who know the price difference may spend the extra $5 or $10 on a whim, because they're scared of messing up the cartridge, they're lazy, or because they can test the game out at the store before buying it.

Wow. Seems like you put quite a bit of work into this. Small, independent video game stores are pretty cool. I was able to buy couple of Wii games that are now out of print and are hard to find at big name retail stores like Gamestop and Bestbuy.

The service is usually better too and people do genuinely seem to know and care about games.

You are crazy Salnax :P

But seriously, this is a cool thread...I wish there was a shop like that near where I lived ^.^

Crazy like a fox!

Before I let this thread blow in the wind:

Seriously, why Ponies?