EA Sports to open retail stores

Electronic Arts’ Sports division will open a chain of bricks and mortar stores in the US.

The first shop – which will house a range of EA Sports games – opens this autumn at an airport in Charlotte, North Calorina.

EA Sports told Forbes it hopes to open at least three stores within the next year.

As pervasive as digital is, there’s still an offline component to acquiring new customers that remains important,” said VP of brand marketing at EA Sports Chris Erb.

Our approach is to be creative and innovative with whatever we’re doing offline, and ensure that it connects with our digital strategies. For example, we just started construction on our first North American EA Sports retail store.

As we look to expand the overall sports game audience, it’s important for us to create environments for people to get their hands on our products and experience how much interactive sports experiences have evolved over the past few years.”

Last week EA announced that FIFA 12 will mark the launch of a brand new social networking-style service called EA Sports Football Club.