This month, a new shop dedicated to PC gaming opened in Tokyo’s Akihabara. It’s called G-Tune: Garage and looks pretty slick.
The retail space sells G-Tune computers, which are branded the “ultimate gaming machine.” In case you are not familiar with them, they’ve been around for a while from Tokyo-based Mouse Computer.
The shop puts emphasis on customers testing and trying out the hardware and peripherals. Mood lighting also seems important. Glowing, too. Lots and lots of glowing.
The two story G-Tune Garage has gaming laptops as well as assembled desktops available for purchase. The low-end models are around US$US500, while the pricier, higher spec models start at around $US1,000. (Check out specs on the store’s official site.) There are also Logicool, Razer, MadCats peripherals for sale, among other items like racing rigs for PC and console games.
In Japan, where consoles have traditionally been king, it’s cool to see PC gaming get such a chic retail store. Heck, it’s cool to see PC gaming in Japan get any kind of store.
8月3日オープンするゲームPC専門店「G-Tune : Garage 秋葉原店」を一足先にチェックしてきた [4Gamer]
秋葉原の自作通りにゲーミングPCショップ「G-Tune : Garage」が開店 [Game Impress Watch]
Comments
17 responses to “Inside A Swanky Tokyo Shop For PC Gamers”
I see they sell flowers too.
To attrmpt to diffuse the situation with your wife when you arrive home with $5000 of PC gear.
*Attempt, defuse
+1 anyway, I got what you meant
Haha. Sorry. Bashing out stuff on an iPhone in between customers leaves little time for grammar and spelling.
If I bring my wife flowers she automatically checks the credit card statement.
Hmmm
your wife must be white right?
Oh my god, that would be my haven.
hopefully somewhere like that can stay open after an initial rush of eager customers who slowly peter off when interest wanes
Can anyone tell me the name of the tower case under the desk, in the very first pic?
Go to their official website and you will see the case there. You get to learn Japanese as well, if you know what I mean 😉
Touche!
An Apple Store for gaming PCs….
Like a bakery is an Apple Store for bread…?
Except they actually sell a variety of stuff at G-Tune…
While I know there’s a lot of PC gamers out there, this seems like a pretty niche store regardless if they are targetting purely and only PC Gaming. Is there enough of a market for a store like this to sustain itself? Surely they’ll need to sell some non-gaming gear as well to keep themselves viable, otherwise as @cufcfan616 says above, there will be an initial excited rush when it opens then the interest will wane and there will be less and less customers coming in.
Because it’s so specialised, it’s probably kinda expensive too.
I can’t really guess how well they’ll do in Japan, but similar stores survive in Melbourne. As for cost, <$2000 (in AUD) for a 'high-end' computer, even not including a monitor, still seems a tiny bit on the cheap-side as far as shop-built systems go.
In Japan? In Akihabera? This store will stay open.
Interestingly, PC gaming is a very small market in Japan (even moreso than what we’re accustomed to) and it shows with most PC games developed in Japan being namely those of an erotic nature. When one speaks of video games in Japan, most would answer portable or consoles. That said, because of such a niche status, this kind of store pretty much captures the entirety of that market and serves those consumers wholly.