The EB I worked in never got kiosks from anyone but Microsoft. We had, luckly, old TVs and RF switchboxes from the previous owner who was doomed from the start a used game store. Microsoft sent a kisosk a month into launch. We basically had used PS2s and Gamecubes hooked to old TVs running games. Usually "featured" titles.
A thing EB loves to do is constantly change around store layouts. Gamecube used to be stuck in narrow wall space between Game Boy Color and used PSX games. When the District manager saw our numbers and noticed that anything not cheap and not next-gen wasn't selling well- margin and sales were exceedingly high on DC, N64 and PSX stuff- we rearranged the store to put all the next-gen stuff up front. PS2 had always sold well, and numbers picked up for it. We moved Gamecube and GBA to the front and both picked up sales wise. Xbox sky rocketed.
In comparisson, the Funcoland and Gamestops in the mall aren't that much better. Funcoland stopped letting people try out games about a year ago. There are 2 TVs that have an Xbox and a demo disc running and a PS2 has some marquee 1st party thing in it. They have a GBA kiosk on the counter. Gamestop actually converted their old Dreamcast kiosk to a Gamecube one, and they have the same looming Xbox one we have. Last I saw running on the Gamecube one was Courtside. The Xbox kiosk just runs the laser light show when you put a CD in. They have one of the LCD screen PS2 kiosks in a corner with a jampack.
It seems like Toys R Us is the only one Nintendo actually gives up a lot of stuff for. At least here. They got a Gamecube kiosk that runs a new game every few weeks. Best Buy has a TV with a Gamecube lingering over their meager Cube selection with Spiderman still in it last I saw. The CompUSA in this area only has a coupe TVs running videos and an Xbox kiosk with no interactive demos.
I've noticed with the EB mall stores in Cincinatti that none of them really try putting out the marketing POP stuff companies send every month out. I guess it depends on the manager. My manager was new to EB and was excited about trying to impress the District Manager. Now he's just a shell of a man who doesn't care if no one buys Sega Tennis this month. A damn shame...
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