About YourGameStore

Games Retail Experience. Shared.

YourGameStore wasn't created from a business course or a theory about how games retail should work.

It grew from decades of actually doing it.

Buying and selling games. Running stores. Importing products. Managing stock. Working with suppliers. Building retail systems. Selling online. Attending gaming events. Adapting to new marketplaces and dealing with the everyday problems that come with running an independent games business.

Behind YourGameStore is the experience of Barry Oates and Dream Consoles, with roots in the games industry stretching back to the 1990s.

From Dream Consoles to YourGameStore

Dream Consoles began during a very different era of games retail.

The internet was in its infancy. There was no Shopify, no modern marketplace integration and no cloud-based inventory system sitting behind the counter.

Independent games retailers had to build relationships with distributors, understand their customers and find ways of competing in a rapidly changing industry.

Dream Consoles became part of that world. The business dealt in games, consoles and accessories and developed experience in areas including imported gaming products at a time when accessing games from other regions was considerably more difficult than it is today. That included buying directly from overseas suppliers and building relationships within the international games trade.

Independent Games Retail

Our history isn't limited to Dream Consoles.

Over the years we have been involved with other projects and collaborations within independent games retail, including GameIndie.

GameIndie brought together people from different parts of the independent games trade to explore what independent retailers could achieve by working together. Ideas around shared information, inventory, technology and collaboration were being discussed long before many of the systems independent retailers take for granted today became commonplace.

There was even an early concept called Gubox — "Games You Own Boxed" — exploring ways of recording and managing game collections.

Some ideas worked. Some were ahead of the technology available at the time.

Today, many of the ideas we were exploring then — connected inventory, product data, online selling and better systems for independent retailers — have become part of everyday games retail.

So like anyone who has spent years in business, we've made mistakes as well. Those experiences are just as valuable.

Games Retail Changed

The games industry didn't stand still.

Physical retail changed. Online retail exploded. Marketplaces became enormously important. Product databases improved. Barcode systems became accessible to small businesses and ecommerce platforms made it possible for an independent retailer to operate technology that once would have required substantial investment.

Dream Consoles returned as a modern games retailer. Today the business combines many of those worlds — selling through its own ecommerce store, marketplaces and gaming events while managing thousands of products across retro and modern gaming.

The technology is different. Many of the fundamental challenges of games retail aren't.

What should I buy? What should I pay for it? What should I sell it for?

How do I keep track of thousands of individual products?

How do I sell the same inventory through multiple channels without losing control of it?

How should trade-ins work? Which systems are worth paying for?

And how do I grow without creating five times as much administration?

Those are real questions we've had to answer ourselves.

Why YourGameStore Exists

Over the years we've seen independent retailers operating at every level. Some have sophisticated inventory and ecommerce systems. Others are still using spreadsheets, handwritten records and duplicate books.

Neither automatically makes someone a good or bad games retailer. Often people simply haven't been shown what is available or how different systems can work together.

That's why we created YourGameStore.

We want to take the knowledge accumulated through years of games retail and make it useful to the next generation of independent retailers — while also helping established stores explore the technology and opportunities now available to them.

We're not here to tell you there is only one way to run a games business. There isn't.

YourGameStore is about understanding the options, learning from real experience and helping you build the operation that's right for you.

Start. Modernise. Grow.

If you've always wanted to start a games business, we'll help you understand what you're getting into before you spend your money.

If you already own a games store, we'll help you explore ways to modernise your systems, improve inventory control, connect online sales channels and develop new opportunities.

As YourGameStore grows, we want it to become somewhere independent games retailers can share knowledge, ideas and good practice.

Because despite all the technology that has changed games retail over the years, one thing hasn't changed:

Independent games retail is built by people who genuinely care about games and the businesses they create around them.

That's where we came from and that's what YourGameStore is here to support.