Play N Trade game stores?

[norkusa]

One of these stores just opened near me. At first I thought it was just local indie store but after checking online, it looks like a nation wide chain.

I guess my question is how do these stores compare with EB/GS? The one I checked out just opened, so they barely had any used stuff in. New/used prices weren't much different than other retail chain but I did see a handful of NES and PS1 games. They were selling some kind of NES/SNES combo system which was kinda strange to see in a store like this.

[cyberfluxor]

Was looking up a few locations, none within 3 hrs drive. Apparently there are some porn bots posting on their forum though. :D

[agbulls]

From their site:

"Where We Are Going: Analysts from Forrester Research show that the video game industry has surpassed the growth of the film industry. According to market research firm NPD Group, 2006 sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the U.S. were $12.5 billion, the industry’s highest-ever returns. Play N Trade is slated to embark on its most aggressive expansion plan yet. We expect to reach close to 200 opened stores by the end of 2007 and a national presence of over 1000 stores in the next three years. The guiding principle for our expansion is achieving strong, controlled growth by partnering with franchisees that share a congruent vision. "

1000 stores in three years? Sound like a new competitor to GameSlop. Now lets just hope it happens, they're a fair company -- and they don't succumb to being bought out.

[CartCollector]

I've been reading Entrepreneur magazine, and every issue for the past few months has had an ad to start a franchise with Play N Trade. I think they even interviewed the guy who started the franchise in one issue. So Play N Trade could get big with all of this publicity. Hopefully it will, we could finally see some competition with EB/GS, and better yet they could carry some retro games. But they'll probably only carry the stuff that makes money (NES SNES etc) and not awesome obscure things like the TG16 and Neo-Geo. But who knows.

[DigitalSpace]

According to their site, a store in the Portland area is "coming soon." I'll have to check it out whenever it opens.

[Hwj_Chim]

I will definitely be checking out the one in tucson.

[MachineGex]

I have been to 3 of the stores. They looked promising two years ago, but have quickly cut their inventory to mostly new stuff. They seems to be following the current trend to carry new stuff and weed out the classic stuff. Too bad, I was hoping they would carry a wide selection of games, not just the new releases you can get at any store.