16 MCV 07/05/10
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BEST BUY IS HERE Buy customers before they’re even due to hit shelves. “We did a lot of research from the offset, and the customers said loud and clear that they wanted to see, feel and play the product,” adds Spence. “They said they were let down in this space and that they couldn’t go hands-on with any of our competitors. When we were building the model to bring entertainment to Best Buy in the UK, that’s where we started. “You have people spending tens of millions and more on bringing Modern Warfare or FIFA or Heavy Rain to market. And we then put it in a small plastic box and that is all you see.
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Customers said they were let down by our competitors and couldn’t go hands-on with the product. Marc Spence, Best Buy
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“Consumers say they want more than that. Gaming is not cheap. A game can cost £40 and people want to see it. “With our gaming space, we want to bring people into the store pre-release. If you have a big product coming out, we would like to invite customers so they can play it. We want to invite the producers of the games into our stores early and create a mini-E3 for them to showcase their titles in the best possible environment.” When it comes to games, Best Buy has some big plans. Its head office team boasts years of experience in this sector (see Meet The Team, below), and the company is confident it has a big part to play in the future of games retail. “We need to stand up on our own,” concludes Spence. “I believe we have created something in gaming that makes us world class. And that’s all I’ve got to worry about.”
Best Buy UK’s head of entertainment Marc Spence boasts over 15 years in video games retail, and this includes a four year-stint as continental Europe MD for GAME Group
MEET THE TEAM Best Buy’s head office team boasts some experienced heads from the world of gaming. The firm’s head of entertainment is Marc Spence. Spence began his retail career working for John Menzies as group buying and merchandise manager in 1994, before joining DSGi in 1997 where he worked for four and a half years as group buying director for games and PC software.
Following this, Spence joined GAME Group as MD for continental Europe, a role he held for four years before joining Home Retail Group in 2007 as head of strategic development. Spence has been at Best Buy since January last year and looks after music, games and DVD in the UK. The firm’s games boss is James Cooke. Cooke joined Best Buy following a two year stint at EUK – he has also
worked as head of games for Virgin and HMV and was senior buyer at WHSmith for four years. Meanwhile, the firm’s head of computing is former DSGi games boss René Wright. “Between James and I alone we have a lot of experience in the gaming market,” says Spence. “It is a small, tight team but a very experienced one.
“That’s what makes us different. We are very focused on gaming. From a head office perspective we have employed people that have a lot of knowledge in the gaming market, and indeed from a blue shirt perspective. “As well as the nine-week training course these guys have been on, we hired them because they are gamers. They all have various backgrounds, and the likes of GAME is amongst them.”