Best Buy is leaning harder into the gaming crowd with a new digital destination called Best Buy Gamers. The site goes live Tuesday in a beta - a test phase aimed at gathering customer feedback while showcasing gaming content, special offers and new tech.
The company developed the experience with IGN. Members will see gaming articles and reviews, updates on Best Buy's live launch events and discounts on fresh hardware. Chief Revenue Officer Patrick McGinnis told CNBC, "Gamers are a customer that are really like no other in terms of their passion for not just the tech, the titles, but also how they want to work with each other as a community."
Best Buy says it serves millions of gaming customers each year, including those who play in stores and tap in-store experts for advice. McGinnis said launching now is "pretty perfect" given the slate of upcoming titles, and noted the company has been building this experience for more than a year.
The calendar helps. The lineup features "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" arriving Nov. 5 as a Nintendo remake, followed by Take-Two Interactive's "Grand Theft Auto VI" on Nov. 19. McGinnis added, "We want to be relevant for our gaming customers, not just during the important, big tentpole periods of the calendar, like when we have these big gaming launches coming up, but really every day."
When products and consumer trends shift it helps to stay informed so sign up for the free Market Briefs for five minute updates
Physical retail is part of the push. Next month, Best Buy will introduce gaming experiences at a store in Torrance, California, where Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will host activations for shoppers. The goal is to blend the new online community with hands-on play so the brand can sit where gaming meets technology, entertainment and culture.
McGinnis called the Gamers beta a proof point for strategy. "If you think about what those priorities are, the Gamers [beta] community is definitely a way that we're expanding and growing our reach, reaching that gaming customer," he said. He also emphasized that the platform is meant to complement existing social spaces: "There's observations of gaps that exist in the places and spaces where gamers are engaged, and we thought that we could build something that would really complement what they're engaging with today from a social platform perspective, not to replace those types of experiences in any way, shape or form." Best Buy plans to iterate the experience based on customer feedback.
Gaming is already a bright spot. In May, Best Buy noted that gaming and computing stood among the biggest growth drivers in its fiscal first quarter. On an August call, incoming CEO Jason Bonfig said demand for "Grand Theft Auto VI" is expected to lift the gaming category. The retailer has been working to revive results under Bonfig after softer sales tied in part to tariffs and weaker consumer confidence, and gaming is a key swing factor.
Even without time to dig into every launch and deal you can get concise context by subscribing to Market Briefs newsletter each morning
