The next time you pull up in a BP gas station, there’s a possibility that you won’t be paying for gas at the counter or getting some snacks. Instead, you might be picking up the latest Call of Duty or Battlefield installment. Video game retail outlets aren’t doing too well at the moment and according to BP UK’s retail trading director, David Pitron, the company is “uniquely placed” to exploit the situation.
Pitron has been quoted as saying: “For the third year in a row we’ve built our sales and market share for the launch of Call of Duty, we had queues at many of our stores at midnight for the launch…We have had mixed success in games, for us it is the big releases that seem to work. Selling the day-to-day ranges is not a profitable business for us. Although, with the problems on the High Street for entertainment retail, we may be uniquely placed to be the most convenient outlet to exploit potential fallout there. We’re certainly keeping an eye on developments.”
At the moment, it’s only doing well with big titles but probably because it is first and foremost a gas station as opposed to a games retailer, so people are less likely to purchase games from them. However, this could change in the future. Don’t you think it sounds like a good idea? Being able to pump some gas and pick up a game at the same time sounds like an activity that I’d like to do. What do you think?
Filed in . Read more about Retail and Video Games.