Fresno gaming retailer carves area of interest as GameStop closes 4 Valley shops

GameStop is closing 4 Valley areas this month as impartial retailers like Blue Shell Gaming in Fresno carve out niches in collectibles and retro gaming that bigger chains have struggled to fill. Photo by Ben Hensley

Four GameStop areas within the Central Valley are on the chopping block this month because the struggling retailer continues to tug out of underperforming markets amid a quickly altering gaming business — creating alternatives for smaller, native rivals.

GameStop areas in Selma and Madera are scheduled to shut this month, together with one Fresno retailer. A Porterville retailer additionally closed on Wednesday, Jan. 7, signaling the continued demise of the gaming retailer broadly referred to as probably the most common areas to buy video video games, collectibles and different merchandise.

The Valley closures, a part of a broader nationwide retreat for the Texas-based retailer, piled onto the almost 600 GameStop shops that shuttered nationwide in 2024. A “significant number” of extra areas have been anticipated to shut final 12 months, in keeping with a 2025 Business Insider report.

GameStop operated greater than 2,300 shops in the beginning of final 12 months, down considerably from its almost 3,000 shops simply a number of years earlier.

The nationwide retailer, in a submitting with the Securities and Exchange Commission, stated that it will proceed narrowing its bodily footprint, specializing in effectivity, eliminating shops in underperforming and oversaturated markets.

“We will continue to focus on cost containment, including closing underperforming stores, as we look to operate with increased efficiency,” the submitting stated.

From meme inventory to market struggles

The firm’s ongoing struggles come after a short resurgence within the public eye. In 2021, its standing as so-called web “meme stock” supplied a short-term increase, attracting retail traders to drive shares to document highs.

The collapse noticed the meme inventory fall dramatically, dropping to its present worth of simply over $20 a share.

GameStop’s core enterprise mannequin is underneath assault by a shift in direction of digital downloads, leaving GameStop the daunting process of shifting two enterprise fashions directly — taking the plunge into bodily collectibles whereas immediately combatting cloud-based gaming.

Local retailers discover their area of interest

Those identical business adjustments, nevertheless, have created house for smaller, locally-owned retailers to carve out area of interest roles — significantly in collectibles, retro gaming and bodily media.

Rick Gonzalez, CEO of Blue Shell Gaming in Fresno, stated impartial shops are sometimes higher poised to adapt to shifting client habits than giant nationwide chains. Gonzalez and his spouse each had expertise within the business previous to opening Blue Shell Gaming in 2014, together with his spouse’s former work with GameStop.

Gonzalez added that the gaming business has developed considerably over the previous decade, shifting away from the standard mannequin of buying a disc and taking part in a recreation immediately from a console.

“The industry has changed from just actually buying a disk and putting in a system and playing — it has gotten more digital,” he stated. “But people do want collectibles — something that’s attached to that digital game.”

The possession query

Gonzalez stated that many shoppers nonetheless search out bodily copies of video games as a method to signify possession in an period dominated by digital downloads. He added that digital purchases could be unstable as licensing agreements expire or platforms shut down.

“People have downloaded games, movies and digital content — and then it gets taken from them,” Gonzalez stated. “When the digital store shuts down or it’s no longer licensed to a particular company, they lose that data or they can’t play it anymore.”

He added that many shoppers didn’t understand they don’t technically personal their purchases, however as an alternative personal permission to entry licensed content material.

“There are still some people that are purists and want that physical copy because it really can’t be taken away,” he stated.

Agility vs. scale

Gonzalez stated smaller retailers are additionally capable of pivot extra shortly than giant chains when business tendencies change. GameStop, based as Babbage’s in 1984, initially targeted on promoting video video games, consoles and equipment, solely later increasing into collectibles as a income driver within the 2000s and extra aggressively within the late 2010s.

Gonzalez stated that the rising pains felt by GameStop make sense; coaching a nationwide workforce is significantly more difficult than dealing with particular person staff on a single-store stage.

“It’s harder to turn that big ship,” Gonzalez stated of GameStop’s shift towards collectibles. “For them to train thousands of people across their stores, it’s tougher. For us, with our smaller market, we can go teach our employees firsthand on how to value collectibles, what to look for in reproduction so that we know we’re buying the real thing, and we’re able to change our price points rather quickly.”

He added that flexibility additionally permits the enterprise to increase negotiations to prospects and distributors, significantly in relation to buyer trade-ins — one thing that may really feel inflexible and unfair at many giant nationwide retailers.

Gonzalez stated Blue Shell Gaming plans to proceed to give attention to what it’s all the time executed: prioritize bodily media and supply the choice of retro gaming — one thing many giant scale retailers don’t supply — as newer consoles enhance in worth.

“A lot of our retro systems are still very fun to play and still very age appropriate, and our prices really haven’t changed much,” he stated.

GameStop has already closed a number of Valley areas over the previous years, together with shops on the Sierra Vista Mall and Universal Park procuring heart in 2015, in addition to a retailer at Marketplace at El Paseo that solely operated for a handful of years earlier than completely closing.