Blockbuster Makes Play For Video Gamers

The Dallas Morning News:

Blockbuster Inc. is taking aim at the video game business.

The Dallas-based video rental chain recently rolled out expanded game sections in its 4,800 corporate-owned stores, with a much bigger focus on selling new games and game consoles, in addition to renting games and selling used titles as it has done for years.

That would seem to put Blockbuster in a direct confrontation with the alpha male of video game retailers: Grapevine-based GameStop Corp.

But GameStop tends to cater to the most hard-core gamers.

Blockbuster, on the other hand, believes it can lure casual, mainstream buyers who are already browsing its aisles for videos.

‘I think what’s driving that is really the Nintendo Wii system,’ said Rod Murray, vice president of game merchandising at Blockbuster.

‘As that system has broadened the demographic, so to speak, we feel like that customer is in our stores every day.’

So Blockbuster stores will carry the big game releases every week, but it probably won’t be the place to find obscure Japanese role-playing games, for example.

Carry on reading…

Photo: Rex C. Curry / Special Contributor.