Published: April 28, 2008 11:18 pm      

BUSINESS: Small retailers left out on big night

While some video game players waited in long lines Monday night to get their first crack at Grand Theft Auto IV, local independent video game shops were out in a different kind of cold.

With demand for the game so high that players have been signing up for months at locations like Best Buy and GameStop to reserve a copy, smaller retailers found it hard to get their hands on the game in time for opening night. Kevin McMullen, owner of Kenmore’s Oogie Games, 2809 Delaware Ave., said he’s expecting his first shipment of GTA IV later today or Wednesday.

“With a smaller video game store, it can take a couple days to get a new release,” McMullen said. “Our wholesaler doesn’t get this kind of stuff until its release date, then it has to get to us.”

Recent criticism of the game’s gratuitous sex and violence has only fueled the interest of teenagers and twenty-somethings. The GameStop just down the street from Oogie, located at 2730 Delaware Ave., opened its doors for just over an hour at midnight to appease die-hard fans of the Grand Theft Auto series. The decision to open that store for the late night rush came down from the corporate level, as did the decision to close Amherst’s Best Buy at its usual time Monday and deal with the crowds at the store’s usual opening time of 10 a.m. today, according to sales staff. Neither company’s public relations representatives had returned calls as of press time.

The tradition of opening electronics stores at midnight for the release of cult games isn’t that new, seen most recently when 2.8 million copies of Halo 3 were scooped up in September 2007. But to stay open and capitalize on that market, you have to have the product before anyone else.

Getting the games first is less an issue of cost, since the games all cost the same, and more a function of dealing with a wholesaler that has plenty of the product on hand. That’s difficult to manage with chain stores like GameStop cornering the market, McMullen said.

“We’re not at that point, but hopefully one day we’ll be there,” McMullen said. “It’s just that GameStop isn’t going to tell us where they’re getting their games. Nobody wants to give up their secrets.”

Contact reporter Daniel Pyeat 693-1000, ext. 158.