PAUSE: The future of GameStop should look like Holland’s Selexyz bookstore.

As Amazon continues to subsume the retail industry whole and digital distribution platforms continue their climb, the question of what becomes of physical retailers like GameStop becomes a real question. The used-game giant purchased its way into the retail age by acquiring flash game portal Kongregate and then later Spawn Labs and Impulse to bolster its digital offerings. Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat observed:

Officially, this shows that GameStop is like a duck escaping a crocodile – on the surface, it looks calm. But under the surface, it’s paddling like hell. In this case, GameStop doesn’t want to be eaten by the rivals who are bypassing retail and selling games direct to consumers. As history shows, nobody wants to be either Tower Records or Blockbuster Video when the music stops on physical retail.

Perhaps maybe one direction could be something more boutique? Flavorpill put together a collection of the world’s most gorgeous bookstores and it only inspires me to dream of what a game store of that magnitude could accomplish. Given that JC Penney’s has taken a step in the similar direction by hiring the man who launched Apple’s retail presence, perhaps that’s not to far in the future:

-Jamin Warren