GameStop is struggling. The specialty video game retailer has seen declining profits since the accelerating growth of digital game purchases and the rise of online retailers like Amazon over the past decade. In 2017, the company announced plans to close 150 stores after a 13.6% year-over-year drop in global sales. In 2018, GameStop reported a massive $488.6 million USD third-quarter loss and there were plans to sell the business, a plan which ultimately ended without a buyer . GameStop then reported another half-billion-dollar loss in 2019, accompanied by further layoffs

GameStop - Experimental Stores 30 IMAGES

“ “Do people want to hang out in GameStop? That’s the experiment.”

Four Concept Stores GameStop Is Testing GameStop 2.0



The foundational new GameStop 2.0 store concept dramatically cleans up the traditional GameStop layout and adds new community spaces. Cleaner, more accessible retail space is joined by couch co-op gaming on large TVs, a new hands-on accessories wall, tabletop gaming, and up to a dozen gaming bays where visitors can sit down to play games together on PC, Xbox One, PS4, or Nintendo Switch.



GameStop Social



GameStop Social features two couch co-op gaming setups and 36 gaming bays where visitors can sit down to play games together on PC, Xbox One, PS4, or Nintendo Switch. GameStop Social is designed for watch parties, esports tournaments, coding classes, vacation camps, birthday parties, and more.



GameStop Retro



A new store concept built on the foundation of GameStop 2.0, GameStop Retro is specifically designed to collect the best library of pre-owned games from the Tulsa area. Displays of the best modern games are supported by hundreds of classic games and consoles, as well as four gaming bays that feature CRT televisions and a wide variety of old-school gaming consoles.



GameStop Pop!



GameStop Pop! was designed with the hardcore collector in mind. There are still games and couch co-op gaming, but the shelves are filled with exclusive gaming collectibles, apparel, and accessories.





“ "So what experiential can theoretically do for us is be nonseasonal and noncyclical.”

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“ "Tulsa may or may not be the answer but it’s a first experiment.”

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But in Tulsa, Oklahoma the company is running a series of experimental store changes that may determine the future of the company. Instead of game sales (and infamous trade-ins), GameStop’s leadership is wondering if it can turn the nation’s most recognizable specialty games store into a space people want to spend time in week after week “Do people want to hang out in GameStop? That’s the experiment,” Frank Hamlin, chief customer officer at GameStop, told IGN in an extended interview abut these new plans. “As digitization expands, as the technology of streaming… and the ability to interact socially from the comfort of your own home expands, the fundamental question of this is: ‘do people want the same notion that they’re doing virtually in real life?’ And so far the answer, I would say, is yes, they do want that.” GameStop started up a series of experimental stores focused on live “experiential” concepts. It’s through these experiments that GameStop is hoping to find ways to free the business from the cyclical and seasonal nature of video game retail where spikes in sales occur during major release months or a new console cycle.“As a specialty retailer, we are linked at the hip to this category of video games,” Hamlin says. “We compete with a bunch of generalist retailers who don’t have the same seasonality as we do because they sell paper towels and loaves of bread and they can use video games as a loss leader to sell a loaf of bread. That’s not our model, and our model is to be true to the category, and the category itself is seasonal and cyclical. So what experiential [stores] can theoretically do for us is be non-seasonal and non-cyclical.”While the types of events offered in stores vary by size and location, they involve concepts like esports, in-store game rentals, or even tabletop RPG sessions.The tabletop sessions, in particular, have proven to be a hit and some stores even hire freelance dungeon masters for stores. "We realized there was sort of space between in the back of the store and said, ‘Well, why don’t we put a community table in there and see if people will come and play tabletop gaming?’” Hamlin explained. But the core “undercurrent” of every store is the notion of "try it before you buy it." It's a place where you can sit on a couch and play games you otherwise can’t play sitting next to each other unless you had four consoles and four monitors together, or try a game with any console, any controller you want, and headset you want, or on PC.“The birthday party thing is interesting. That may be, for some gamers, a turn-off,” Hamlin explained. “So then do you schedule those at different parts of the day? Or do we have nighttime, M-rated game activities where it’s not open to the younger community? All the same, we’ve gotta tinker with it. How does the community live happily together but so that each individual faction of the community can pursue their own thing?”Another particular area of interest for GameStop is esports. Each of the esports-oriented stores is outfitted with 12 gaming bays, which is the number of units you need for a full Overwatch match or games that require smaller teams. And these in-store tournaments could potentially form an esports league of their own.Hamlin also laid out a vision for an amateur esports league where each store can essentially become an esport open for aspiring champions. "You can be the best Rocket League team in Pryor, Oklahoma, and then we do a Tulsa-level competition," said Hamlin and the winner there can go on-and-on to win regional GameStop tournaments, to statewide ones, all the way to nationals where they might be able to play against professional esport organizations.The key word for everything GameStop is doing with these stores is "experimental." But that doesn’t mean GameStop is leaving the seasonal cycle of video game releases behind, promises Hamlin. “For instance, those console launches, in an experiential store we can take out all of the old PS4s and Xbox Ones and put in the new PS5 and the new Xbox [Series X]. And folks can come in and experience for the first time these consoles before they ever buy them.”This extends beyond just next-gen consoles and can potentially be applied to any major release, according to Hamlin. GameStop is kicking around ideas about how to get early betas into the stores and potentially host livestream events directly with developers on major launch nights. “On a title launch night, the ability to have an immersive, media-first store experience means that in these experiential stores these launch nights are going to be incredibly powerful because you can have clinics around the developers talking about maps, strategies, etc within the game.” gaming elements into their parks . And even Atari has announced a line of new, gaming-themed hotels . But whereas these hotels and theme parks might be once-a-year events, GameStop is aiming to be a weekly hangout spot for D&D and game talk.Ultimately, the question is whether or not these experiential stores can revitalize GameStop, but that’s a question Hamlin and the company are still figuring out. In a separate interview with GamesIndustry.biz , Hamlin said that the idea of an experiential store has been kicked around for a couple of years, but only now is the company testing the idea.“I don’t think we’re too late, necessarily,” said Hamlin to IGN. “I do very much believe in the Chinese proverb that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. But the second-best time is now… We just got to figure out the role of the future in a very digitized category for the specialty retailer. And Tulsa may or may not be the answer but it’s a first experiment.”

Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter