Gamers with a penchant for Slim Jims and Yoo-Hoo may have noticed something different on their last trip to the 7-Eleven: a selection of the season's biggest games, including Fallout 3, Guitar Hero World Tour, and Gears of War 2. Although those games are only available "while supplies last," they are by no means the end of the retailer's plans for the industry.
7-Eleven announced today its full-fledged entry into the gaming retailer market, saying that games are now a regular part of the chain's stock, right up there with Slurpees and potted meat food product. In addition to games, 7-Eleven is selling prepaid cards for a variety of massively multiplayer online games, as well as Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network. In charge of the initiative is Michael Jester, the company's category manager for gaming and electronics.
"This is not just a holiday promotion for us," Jester said in a statement, "but a brand-new product line-up that will be available year-round. We may not be a total entertainment destination...yet, but we're hoping to expand our selection beyond the high-dollar, hot-selling games to include options for all budgets, like value-priced video games as well as DVD movies."
If 7-Eleven is going to be carrying games regularly, the convenience store's employees may need a bit of additional training. Along with numerous online reports of stores breaking release dates for their current slate of games, GameSpot employees were able to procure copies of Gears of War and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King before their official launches.
As for why 7-Eleven would get into games, the company said that its customer demographic "skews heavily" toward men in the 18-34 age range, which overlaps nicely with the gaming consumer population.
