Going into those little hole in the mall GameStop stores leaves much to be desired. Some are so small that you’re likely to knock sh*t off the shelves just walking through it. It’s also sometimes difficult to find what you’re looking for in the clutter. And while you can always ask a clerk if they have a certain game in stock, not all of them know of or have heard of Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, and sometimes it’s just better to look for yourself.
This prototype, found and stealth photographed by NeoGAF member Feep (“f*ck them, I’m a ninja” he says), is in Gainesville, Florida. According to that store’s clerk, this is one of only a few prototype stores in the nation.
First off, it’s three times as large as a standard Gamestop, with two separate wood-inlaid counters and high-quality flooring. There were no less than EIGHTEEN separate demo kiosks around the store, including a giant custom kiosk for Guitar Hero: World Tour. They were even demoing Valkyria Chronicles(!). Also littering the outer walls, amongst the games, stood high-definition touch-screen displays that you could browse the store catalog, as well as manually search for any title to check for a game description, price (both new and used), and whether or not the game is currently in-stock. Both these touchscreen displays and several of the kiosks feature those high-quality audio cone things mounted above. Also, thanks to these displays, I found out Prince of Persia is selling for $40 new due to some Amazon price drop. Awesome. I bought it.
This looks pretty great. What do you think? The stock searching is just what these stores need.
[Thanks, Patrick]
