Moving beyond its movie and video game rental business, Blockbuster said this morning that it has started selling retail video games and game hardware to all of its U.S.-owned stores.
The effort is part of a plan to significantly expand its game business and compete with the likes of GameStop and Game Crazy stores. Hopefully, this idea will go over better with shareholders than Blockbuster’s plan to purchase the Circuit City electronics train. But it isn’t clear to me why someone would go to Blockbuster for a smaller selection of games than they could get at a dedicated game store.
Consumers can purchase video game titles, hardware and accessories for the Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS game systems. Blockbuster will add more rental game titles as well. One notable absence: Sony’s PlayStation Portable.
The timing is linked to sales of some big titles, including Nintendo’s “Mario Kart” game and the soon-to-be-released “Grand Theft Auto IV.”
Blockbuster will have special offers like an exclusive Sony PS3 movie and game bundle. The bundle, available at corporate-owned stores while supplies last for $499.99, excluding tax, includes: a 40-gigabyte Sony PS3 game console that also plays Blu-ray DVDs, PS3/Blu-ray DVD remote, HDMI cable, “Spiderman 3″ Blu-ray disc, “Transformers” PS 3 game and a Blockbuster card which gives a user a free PS3 or Blu-ray rental per week for 12 consecutive weeks.
3 Comments
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Lee Coursey said:
Don’t forget that Blockbuster is in a lot of places that only have Wal-Mart - and having another store selling hardware and games would be a huge jump for towns like those.
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Richard Guion said:
In Castro Valley we don’t have a GameStop here. I started buying games at GameCrazy (Hollywood Video’s side store) just because it is more convenient–I can pick up a game without having to drive another 10 miles. In various small towns that I’ve seen, where as Lee said, they have no GameStops, this will work. But I think it would work better if they did the GameCrazy thing–dedicate part of the store/staff towards selling gamed.
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Selling Video Games said:
My friend who works at a local store informed me they’re going to start selling HDTV’s and such soon as well. It’s a brilliant idea to me, they need some other angle after netflix and other such companies started taking away their monopoly.
