Electronic Arts recently announced layoffs of over 1500 employees. That hasn’t stopped them from doing something I thought nowadays was frowned upon. Opening two specialty stores that do nothing but promote their new Nintendo Wii title EA Sports Active.
The current plan is to have open for one month Mid November to Mid December two EA Sports Active stores. One in Boston (156 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116) and the one I visited in San Francisco (39 Stockton Street). You can set up training sessions with their staff there, but don’t plan on staying to late the store is only open till 7pm most days.
The store only has one goal to make people aware of what EA Sports Active is. The employee there told me these stores are not open to make money, simply educate people on the product. I looked around and asked do you sell Nintendo Wii consoles. No. Do you sell additional accessories for the Nintendo Wii like extra controllers or the Wii Balance Board. No. They only sell the two titles EA Sports Active and EA Sports Active: More Workouts.
What blows my mind is how big this store is. Its huge, tons of employees and consoles set up yet no real urgency to sell units or actually get people to walk out of the store feeling like they have to have the product.
In the midst of a bad economy and not much holiday spending why is Electronic Arts pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into stores to promote a single game on a single console. If you agree to do this, sell the consoles there, even if they are for retail price give the consumer an opportunity to walk out with the experience you intended. Instead I’ll just walk down to gamestop to pick up my console, accessories and my copy of EA Active.