Games on the agenda at Next

Fashion retailer Next has laid out its plans to claw away market share from more established games retailers with a giant increase in its interactive entertainment offering.

The firm has added over 300 games products to its latest Next Directory catalogue – and it could begin stocking the likes of Wii and DS in its High Street stores.

The company’s games offering is supported by Choices UK and includes every major console and a wide range of software.

We saw a very successful introduction of games in July which continued into Christmas supported by our Directory and subsequent Christmas brochure,” Next’s games buyer Jon Biddle told MCV.

We stock all of the major formats and they’ve done phenomenally well. Our spring/summer offering has around 300 games products spread across the Directory and website and we are looking how to drive the category further.”

And that could include placing consoles and software in High Street stores.

Ultimately we’d like to consider moving games in-store, but it’s very much early days,” added Biddle.

A lot of games products fit with our female and family customer base. Of course we’re looking to build on this success and grow our market share this year. We can see some real potential in the games market and know we can make this work for our business model. However it’s new to us so we’re taking a steady approach.”