Transcript:
Hi folks, Steven here. So, I wanted to let you know about a bit of Nintendo news that with some of the rumblings about NX, I think this piece of news got left a little to the side. A few days ago, the @NintendoNYC Twitter, which is the Twitter for the Nintendo World Store, announced that the store’s closing on January 19th, just for a little while, just for a month. And will be reopening in February as the Nintendo NY store. This is effectively the third name for this store, started in 2001 as the Pokémon Center. And back in 2005, it sort of closed down for a little bit, got remodeled, and became the Nintendo World Store with a broader product focus there. As far as what’s going into this store during this remodeling, on the website for the Nintendo World Store says, “Updated interior design, new demo stations, and a 15 foot gaming screen.”
But, let’s rewind. Forget about what they’re going to putting in there during the remodeling. Let’s talk about that name change. It’s going to Nintendo NY, which is obviously a bit more locale specific. Which kind of suggests, just kind of a guess, that maybe Nintendo is looking at building more of these across the country and maybe eventually the world. Obviously, that’s a very large assumption based on not a ton of evidence, but I kind of wanted to put it out there. Now, of course, the Pokémon Center, when it launched in 2001, was called Pokémon Center New York. That was, of course, tying into the Japanese chain. So, putting the name there doesn’t necessarily mean there’ll be an expansion. But on the other hand, we’ve seen some of their other efforts, like the theme park deal that was announced last year. And having more dedicated retail, could help Nintendo spread their brand. It’s kind of similar to the Apple Store strategy. Back in the early 2000s, one of the reasons Apple Store was created is that Apple/Steve Jobs decided that normal computer store employees weren’t doing as well of a job of explaining the Apple products as they would have liked. And they decided to go more into their own storefront type business to get people excited about it. And maybe that’s what needs to happen here. Nintendo has definitely some marketing troubles over the last few years. And maybe this could help out the situation.
As far as me personally, the closest I could expect, in the first or second wave if there is an expansion, to have a store near me, would probably be in the Chicago area. I guess they could put it downtown, or in one of the major malls in the metro area over there. But really, what I want to know is what are your thoughts here? Do you think Nintendo either will expand or should be expanding their retail presence? Give us some comments. I really do want to know. Alright folks, thanks.
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