VentureBeat

GameStop, the world’s largest video game retailer, with more than 5,500 GameStop and Electronic Boutique stores in 16 countries, is about to get some new competition.

Game Quest, once a contender, had to sell its stores to the big company (Electronic Boutique at the time) in 2001. But now Game Quest has started an affiliated company, Proximo Games, that will start opening and granting game store franchises in the Latin American market, the company announced today, a market where GameStop hasn’t had a presence.

Game Quest, which has two stores but operates a $30 million game distribution business, will have a minority stake in Proximo Games. The company’s Game Quest International distribution subsidiary will be the sole distributor for Proximo Game franchise stores, said Kevin Baqai, director of business development at Miami-based Proximo.

Latin America has been a tough market for game stores because of rampant piracy. That’s probably why GameStop has stayed away from the market. But Baqai says there’s a growing middle class that appreciates the convenience of a retail game store and the ability to buy legal copies of games that come with manuals and permit increasingly engaging online multiplayer play.

Baqai says there are lots of independent game retailers in the region. He hopes that dozens of them will convert to Proximo Games franchises in the coming months. Proximo Games will offer consistent branding as well as something that could be very important: a constant wholesale price for games. Typically, prices fluctuate for games, with popular games skyrocketing in cost and making them expensive for independent game retailers. By guaranteeing the price, Baqai says Proximo Games lets stores operate more profitably.

The company plans to introduce the franchises in more than 20 countries, from Mexico to Argentina. Bobby Baqai will be chief executive. He’s one of the Baqai brothers who founded Game Quest in 1989. There are five Proximo Game stores now, but Kevin Baqai says the company is in talks with many more prospects.

Baqai said the Proximo Game stores will be more convenient than the current alternative of ordering games online from outlets such as eBay and then relying upon freight forwarding to ship the games to South America. Proximo has 12 employees, while Game Quest, based in Los Angeles, has 35. Game Quest also operates a direct online game sales business.

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