And the world's largest video game pawn shop grows in size...

ekkobi

Wait. We had GameStops in Norway?

Oh well. I like buying games at Free Record Shop. The employees may not speak Norwegian all the time, and they'll drop the discs and swear and curse in the act, but they are genuinely nice people!

(Plus, they only slap me around, like, three times a month! And I know they love me on the inside, they just have a hard time expressing their feelings! Tough love is not a myth!)

Anyways

Actually, from what I've heard Free Record Shop closed down and transferred its stores to EB Games/GameStop in Finland way before this - though GameStop did not have any shops in Finland before that.

This is unfortunate news... then again, it is an extremely competitive market. At least Sweden still has GAME as well, if I'm not entirely mistaken.

mexxxant

The thing shocking me the most is the fact that Kotaku believes it has such a high percentage of Norwegian readers or readers with a interest in the Norwegian gaming/retail market. You do know we a kingdom of about 4,7 million?
Ok we got loads of cash...but.... Really Kotaku? Really that interesting? :)

BareLeif

Hmm, I was hearing something about this ages ago, but then I thought they wouldn't change the shops at all, they'd let them stay as "Free Record Shop"'s. Not it sounds like we're gonna get some Gamestops here. I'm all for this, as long as we get sweet preorder deals and gifts, very much like the US.

Norway needs to get some gaming competition, Spaceworld sucks, and Free Record Shops mainly sold music. Siba is good for hardware deals, but not so much on the software side. EBgames here are okay, haven't really experienced problems with them, shop owner is a pretty cool guy, eh giefs sweet games and doesnt afraid of anything.

But will these shops be called EBgames or Gamestop? Otherwise there'll be an onslaught of EBgames in the capital's centre.

Itchy (PSN: Kaizoku-ou)

@xtraman:
At least until they find out how to sell used downloads and take trades on the downloads you don't use anymore?... :)
I really don't think anyone will be any happier buying their product directly from the publisher/console maker than from GS.
@Cactuar:
From what I heard from a friend of mine GameStop uses the "GS" name in the US where GS was the dominant brand (more stores/sales) and EB Games worldwide, where EB was the dominant brand (GS wasn't even in most of those countries).
@Zunnoab:
Babbages? Really? I mean I know who Charles Babbage is and everything, but do you really thing everyone does? GameStop makes much more sense.
@NorthernAvengeR:
That's funny...when I walk into the GS's in my area, the only thing I notice is that the customers and the associates are very...similar. Must be different in your area. Seems most of these retail chains do most of their hiring from people who walk in off the street. That would lead me to believe that associates at GS, BB, CC, WM, etc are simple reflections of their customer base. Now I am sure you are a shining example of the people in your area but....

I've got 2 main gamestores I go to here. A GS and a GameRush. The GameStop is far and above the better store in my area. I've also got a PnT a bit further away. I'll go in and see what all the hype is about.

figaro1010

Hopefully they will have games on release date..

Went to buy GT5: Prologue and Everybody's Golf: World Tour at Free Record Shop last week. GT5P was under the counter and they hadn't even heard about Everybody's Golf.. :( (It should be said that even the gamestore Spaceworld didn't have Everybody's Golf.)

On a second note: With the game pricing on the norwegian EB Games/GameStop website, I kinda fear the store prices..

Gjerven

@Zunnoab: Ugh, Funcoland was worse than Gamestop. At least Gamestop's used games are somewhat decently priced (except for new releases).

Methusalah

I miss Funcoland and Babbages, both far better names in my opinion.

Gamestop has basically eaten up all of the competition in my area. I don't shop there anymore much. I used to, but I don't like near monopolies.

Zunnoab

@Mr.Waffleton:
You wrote:
"How do you say "Hey dude, you should buy the pre-owned version of that game instead of a new one, see, it's got eight stickers covering the packaghe, isn't that sweet dude" in Bokmål Norwegian?"

Translation:
"Halla! Du burde kjøpe en tidligere eid versjon av dette spillet, isteden for et nytt eksemplar! Se, den har åtte klistremerker over hele coveret. Er ikke det herlig?".

fresky

@Cactuar:
Sorry for doubleposting(we need an edit comment button) Seems EB Games is a subsidiary of gamestop.
quote from wikipedia on EB games page: Prior to an October 2005 merger, when the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corp.,

link: [en.wikipedia.org]

Cactuar

I'm from Belgium and I'm happy with this news. Free Record Shop is kinda half music, half gamestore and they're always late with releases even in the shops in big cities. Hopefully with GameStop it will become a good gamestore, because there aren't that many stores specialized in only games and the ones that are are usually quite expensive. Ah well.

Timooo

@Cchrist: You're not in NL, are you? I ask because there's no dedicated game chain here either.
I hope this happens to every Free Record Shop in Holland as well.

I suspected they were part of some bigger games merchant, as they were the only chain in NL to (briefly) offer second hand games.

73mike

hmm, I could have sworn it was EB games that was going to purchase FRS. Oh well, Atleast I will get a bigger selection, since the FRS in Hamar atleast only carry a limited selection of games.

But I have heard a lot of bad things about gamestop.

Cactuar

Damn I had all but forgot about this. I guess it's bad for music and movies, but I've never bought a game from free record shop before anyway. The game selection at Free Record sucks ATM so meh. Still won't shop at Gamestop unless they start hiring people that have passed the primate stage on the evolutionary trail though.

NorthernAvengeR

Would that they'd buy GAME. I've shopped in GAME here in the UK and I've shopped in GameStop in the US and boy howdy do I know which one I prefer.

Huxleyhobbes

Well I don't like Gamestop either, but this is capitalism and until people stop selling and buying used games from them, this is the kind of thing that is going to happen. Gamestops selection of new games only seems to go back around six months whereas I can go to best buy and pick up games that were practically launch titles. I finally found a copy of the original Rayman raving rabbids for wii at Best Buy brand new because mine started stocking them again recently. I've only ever seen one used copy at my gamestop and it was in terrible condition for $26.99. I got mine brand new for $30.00. And yet for some inexplicable reason people trade games at gamestop while emptying there collections and filling Gamestops coffers.

LowNemesis

Haha this is too funny. FRS was hardly the place to buy games before, let's just put it that way. I wonder what magic trick they're going to be pulling out of their collective hiney to make this work

Sunjammer

damm don't you remember when people had a choice on what video game store they went to???
gamestop is killing everything..
i can't wait for everything to be down loadable only, then gs will have a major problem..

xtraman

@Cchrist:

You say that now, but you'll learn. How do you say "Hey dude, you should buy the pre-owned version of that game instead of a new one, see, it's got eight stickers covering the packaghe, isn't that sweet dude" in Bokmål Norwegian?

Mr.Waffleton

Could someone please explain to us American readers how a free record shop could turn a profit?

Hubert Humphrey Methadone

Ah jeez. I got my copy of Fire Emblem for the GBA in a Free Record Shop in Amsterdam. Good times.

... That's the only thing I have to say on the matter ._.

Bernard McGraw

They're brining more of Gamestop's impeccable service to the rest of the world.

ShadowFFVI

A world without competition is a world devoid of captalism.

Wyld

@Grumps: wouldn't that be nice? Provide excellent service for the community and pay people well? It's a tough concept to wrap your head around. I guess that's why I don't make the big bucks!

MisterSleep

I don't know anything about Free Record or the people who work there, but any new nexus for Gamestop's obnoxious 'sales associate' operating practices is a bad thing.

MisterSleep

Well, I never used my local Free Record Shop. But it stopped business already couple months ago.

Mara

if you want to do something about it, take advantage of the low american dollar and import.

nolifedopestar (PSN: noliferuin)

@Cchrist: yeah i know i just like to look at whole foods or in and out burger and think all companies could be like that.

Grumps

There aren't a lot of them anyway, not in the capital anyways. And they are more of a music-shop that offers games on the side.

Philantrophy

@Grumps: That's the way of the world mate.

Cchrist

Until Gamestop attempts to buy out Play N Trade, I won't care. I've sworn to never set foot in any video game retailer that isn't Play N Trade.

Doomstink

Yes, the poster above is telling the truth. But I don't see this making a huge difference because there are like 5 or 6 of them in the capital.....

Philantrophy

Someone needs to rein these monopoly companies in some day, at the very least there should be an expected amount of revenue generated that should be paid to the people that work in each store. Some poor kid busting his ass making a penny at best to gamestop's ninety nine cents is depressing.

Grumps

That's...really weird 'cause as far as I know the Free Record Shops here only have like 10% of games...the rest is DVDs and CD's and junk

Zho

I know most of the amrican kotaku readers will think this is meh but i think this is FUCKING GREAT news! I really hope they do the same with the free record shops here because we really need a proper gamestore brand.

Cchrist

The guy's name is Fontaine? That sounds familiar...

"Would you kindly sell your stores to us?"

WormFOODx

"This transaction is another step in our strategy of.. WORLD DOMINATION! I mean..bringing more video game stores to growth markets around the world."

Crome

Monopolies are bad though...

eastx

Blah. They got enough oil money to buy games wherever they want to.

NO MORE LAZER!

Easy solution, buy your games at Spaceworld.

Mevvem

Yay, news that concerns my homecountry! Never liked Free Record Shop too much, so a Gamestop instead of FRS in the local mall is much much welcomed.

Alazar

@EU: bendover, and prepared to be assimilated :)

balls187++

GameStop is an evil company and all but it's still nice to have a game store right across the street... sadly my street has none... I have to go out and drive to the mall to get mine ; ;

TrIxX

i remember buying pokemon cards there back in the old days,
other than that i've never really been there that much... good or bad, this doesn't affect me even though i live there :P

Haingis

Dick Fontaine. That says it all.

cybereality

And the beast marches on!

jmb8504

@Cchrist: ...because we really need a proper gamestore brand.

GameStop is more of a 'crappy' gamestore brand. Seriously. The only thing GameStop is useful for in the States is to buy used games for cheap through a combination of coupons/promos...and trade them in for credit at other stores.

Other than that, I don't trade to them (low trade-in values), buy anything used (too expensive...except for the reason stated above), or buy anything new (read: used).

eugaet

Free Record Shop was always more of a place to occasionally find cheap music than a place to buy games. I spotted some decent deals there now and then, but on the whole... Meh.

MrPerson

Oh btw, they dont just sell video games... Movies is their biggest business, Games second and music last. Music used to be their beef. They actually only introduced video games in to the store a couple of years back.

TheTimeRanger

old..... known this for about ... 2 months now.

TheTimeRanger

@73mike:
You still have Saturn, Media-Markt and Future Zone if you live in Rotterdam.

Anyway, Free Record Shop was the place to be to finish a game in 2 weeks and trade it for a better game afterwards.

Also, they have some great deals on most DVDs.

Witless

This is interesting news to say the least. I rarely buy at the local Free Record Shop because their games usually cost significantly more than other competing store chains. It'll be interesting to see if pricing changes. Also, it would be cool if they introduced selling and purchasing of used games, that's something you don't see to often over here.
Now if only they had video game rentals the planets would all align.

Pinhead

Hey I am from Norway, didnt know this was happening.
Ah well, If you ask me Its the same shit in a different wrapping.

I buy my games online

KEELr

I'm also from Norway, and this deal means nothing. Because they will have to re-negotiate their deal with all the malls, buildings where they have their stores. Because many malls have a "only 1 of each store" type deal, and many have other game stores already.

Havok

Well I suppose I get why Gamestop wants to move in on the Norwegian market. Games usually retail for about 599kr a pop in Norway, wich is about 100 bucks. A wee bit more cash per unit for the peoples who wants the mad moneys.

What's interesting is that Free Record Shop is primarily a music store (hence Free *Record* Shop) that also sells dvd's. The games section is usually tucked away in the corner where the nerds can hang out without frightening the other customers.

So I suppose it'd be a good thing if a popular store with prime locations turned into a a full blown game store, and the pod people coming in to buy the new generic dime a dozen rnb single is instead faced with a life size Solid Snake statue or something.

Fury-genesis

There's no way in hell that the FRS in the Netherlands will change into gamestores.

The Free Record Shop is a Dutch company that sells DVDS.CD's and games, and games have always come dead last to the people in charge, I ran a game division for over 5 years there and never ever did anything get taken serious, cuz hey.. them's just games n all!

Even now they don't take games serious at all, all they see is the big releases like GTA and such, as long as it brings in the big bucks.

The FRS has over 180 stores in the Netherlands a long with 40 or so Van Leest (meant to be a uppity version of the FRS) and one big ass CD store in Amsterdam called Fame Music.

Hans is just trying to get rid of his foreign shit.

My old manager got sent over to Norway as a regional manager some years back (already a big fuck you from HQ if you ask me) guess, he's out of a job.

Poor guy.

Kamizzle

Well, THEM records ain't free anymore....

Knoxximus (360/PSN)

Gamestop has already bought all the Free Record Shop's here in Finland. About 6 months ago.

Jerkko

As a Norwegian costumer, I must say that FRS wasn't all that great. Very few games, most of them 2 year old crap to budget price, and the new ones were incredibly expensive.

FRS are only good for CD's and DVD's, you are better off buying games elsewhere. My favorite place is EB Games, the only shop I know off not trying to get the most money out of you.

B.Silver

I'm actually glad this happened. Free Record Shop stinked and my town is in dire need of a real game shop. Yay-ness

Krokenheim

@Doomstink:

Yet wendsday we set foot in the on at Triangle Town Center, only to say "hey, you dont have anything" and left (Well minus the Super Robot Taisen 2 game)...

ZeonicFreak

I don't live in Norway, so I don't particularly know how that would affect those cats, but I hate when Gamestop pulls this bullshit. I nearly cried when they bought Rhino Video Games here, which wouldn't have been a big deal if Rhino wasn't a pretty kickass specialty store that stocked stupid amounts of retro games and systems and had cool off the wall japanese stuff, and whose used games were way waaaay cheaper than Gamestop's but they were, now every fucking game store where I live is a Gamestop, 2 Gamestops and a fucking Babbages.

kevkevblazini