If there’s two things I love in life, it’s PlayStation and Korea. I know 2019 was the year K-pop took over my end of year wrap-ups. I tread within the territory of becoming a BLINK, the fandom for popular 3rd gen. group BLACKPINK. Yes, I even understand the generation system now. And I’ve been lucky enough to go to Korea, and bask in all its insane glory. The Korean war, which devastated the continent before ending in 1953,was quickly replaced with sprawling supercities that now houses over 50 million people.
And hiding amongst these is a brand known as Lotte. While it won’t catch your eye immediately, you’ll soon notice it everywhere. From products in the wide array of convenience stores, to Lotteria; A popular fast food restaurant which for me simply appeared out of nowhere. To the many more Lotte-branded things, are Lotte Department Stores. Stores that are sort of like malls, but are also a department store. Think ‘The Warehouse’ to the Nth degree.
For the first time within their Jamsil store, located in the Songpa district, Lotte have opened a dedicated PlayStation store within…its department store. If there’s anything I like to celebrate about PlayStation, it’s the weird stuff. While ‘weird’ is a more obtuse remark in this case, it’s a big deal for Sony’s gaming console in Korea.
While cases like Dave The Diver, or the more obvious Maple Story, reflect a strong industry in Korea. Stellar Blade was a huge success for the current gaming, and PlayStation, market. Shift Up’s third-person action-adventure had early achievements on the PlayStation 5, before booming on PC with a million copies sold in 3 days, marking the start of something new for the industry in Korea. It was no longer just a developer for PC games. But also one that could find an even bigger audience on consoles.
And Lotte believes this.
The new store will offer hands-on experience with the PlayStation 5 Pro console and Portal Remote Player. Providing a separate experience zone for PC gamers to use the DualSense wireless controller, the store will also carry 15 variations of the DualSense controller. This will allow for customized purchases from gamers. Along with official PlayStation-branded audio accessories, including wireless earbuds and headsets. Game character merchandise and accessories, and even more — it’s all under one roof.
The location also serves as an early-launch venue. Giving customers the first opportunity to test out new titles before their official release, SAROS is among those available for hands-on preview, with more major releases expected later this year.
With EB leaving Aotearoa, you have to wonder if we’ll see our own dedicated store in future. With the currency of nostalgia growing daily, and the want of fans to attend midnight releases again, it certainly leaves me with a sense of jealousy to hear of a dedicated venue for PlayStation.
So c’mon The Warehouse. Let’s get a dedicated PlayStation store opened somewhere. Or someone. That would be nice. If you could do that.
