Atari 2600 - contributed
SINCE the 1970s, the gaming industry has been moving with the sale of the gaming consoles. With the consoles as big as a poker box, the gaming industry was limited. Pac-Man, Space Invader and Gyrus were the most popular games on the enormous boxes. To market this was limited mainly to game arcades. With the invention of the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo, gaming was now turning a new corner. This was the beginning of endless possibilities.The consoles
With a console costing between US$100 to US$200 and the potential for households to get in on gaming, electronic stores began stocking up on them by the hundreds. Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack all came in with these new devices. That would eventually not only give them new customers, but have them returning. Yes, before the gaming industry, the only other way to get people to come to an electronic store was to have new products. With video games, you had controllers of various type and sizes, video game cartridges of different genres and even genies to cheat games, which was also an electronic add-on. Now, electronic retailers began having a feast because now they could be guarantee returning customers.
The video games
But it was not all bells and whistles until about the mid-90s because before then, it took about 10 to 12 years to develop one game. The person who created Doom did not live to see his creation launched. But with modern technology, gaming moved to the next level with yearly releases of game titles and the release of a new game with every movie. This is now a retailers dream with revenues tripling over the past two year from just game sales alone. Now, local retailers like Watts New had a chance to get in on the market. They themselves have made it priority to stock the latest games.
The accessories
A new age has come when gamers no longer have to implement ideas themselves. No more solder irons, no more wires, no more scratching of the heads. What am I talking about? Accessories. This is not only about controllers and memory cards. We are talking about cables and devices to enhance your gaming experience. Retailers have so many options and angles to take when it comes on to accessories that they themselves get confused. So let me categorise them for you:
• PC connectivity which enables you to connect your computer to your console via an adapter, cable or wirelessly.
• AV connections where you can connect your consoles to different video devices like computer monitors, LCD screens, HDTV, projectors and even allowing multiple consoles to the same video device.
• Cosmetic: With this you can change the casing of your consoles to make it transparent or lighted and your controllers can be coloured cases or even have added graphical designs.
• Game enhancement: Like action replay, swap magic, mod chips, wireless and turbo controllers, battery chargers, headsets, external fans and even online shopping prepaid cards.
These are all now available from third-party manufacturers with equal or better quality than the console developers themselves. Now, retailers no longer have to worry about high prices because the market is open to various options. Now, retailers no longer have to even advertise because as soon as the game is out television stations are flooded with information about the game. That leaves the retailers with less work on their hands when it comes to the game savvy customers.
Did you know?
1. Best Buy now has 608 stores compared with Circuit City's 599 and nearly $25 billion in revenue to Circuit City's $9.7 billion.
2. From 1982 to 1999, Circuit City generated cumulative stock returns returns 22 times better than the market.
3. Watts New as of 2008 opened two new locations, Liguanea and Ocho Rios, making it more dominant in the local gaming market.
Done by GameYaad.com
Shop #18 Hagley Park Plaza. Tel: 876-754-6453. Email: info@gameyaad.com.
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