Nintendo to open Nintendo Tokyo, their first official store in Japan

Nintendo fans visiting Japan will have another item to add to their itinerary. Nintendo have announced that they will be opening their very first official, company owned and operated Nintendo store in Tokyo, aptly named Nintendo Tokyo.

It is tipped to feature the requisite consoles, games and merchandise. But is also intended to be a central hub for communicating Nintendo information in Japan as they intend to hold events and playing opportunities for the Nintendo faithful.

Nintendo Tokyo is intended to be located in the Shibuya Parco building and its opening is supposed to coincide with the opening of the new building itself. Given the massive popularity of the Nintendo Switch, DS and their software in Japan, Nintendo Tokyo will highly likely be doing massive business and help Nintendo strengthen its hold on the Japanese market; at the same time providing a somewhat holy ground for Nintendo fanatics worldwide.

Operating an official company owned and operated flagship store has been done by tech companies before obviously – Apple for example with their Apple Stores.  But in the video game industry this is a first. Sega does have Segaworld but it is more of an amusement park than a flagship space for their brand (and it’s amazing, if you ever visit Japan – Ed). If Nintendo succeeds in their vision of creating more than a simple video game store, it could be quite exciting for the future.

Given that Nintendo have stated their store will be a central communications point for Japan, can we expect Nintendo Direct live from Nintendo Tokyo? Or upcoming games on show for the public to play? There is no information on the size of the store itself, but given a large enough space Nintendo Tokyo could become more of a showcase than a retail store. Which would be a game changer.