GameStop has announced a partnership with Microsoft - the same company whose consoles they've been repairing and reselling over the last several years - in which they'll use the Redmond-based company's Azure cloud-computing platform to help boost the retail experience for shoppers.
The brick-and-mortar retailer aims to use Microsoft Azure to stream video game-related content like trailers and other promotional materials to shoppers' smartphones and tablets (who carries their tablet around when shopping?) while browsing merchandise in-store.
I suppose someone could do that now by simply searching the web for trailers and the like but having all of that information in one central place (presumably via an app) would certainly be convenience.
GameStop also plans to uses Azure to stream trailers to TVs set up within the store.
Jeff Donaldson, senior vice president of GameStop Technology Institute, said Microsoft has always been a fantastic and innovative company for GameStop to collaborate with, both in the technology space as well as with their video game consoles and titles.
Tracy Issel, general manager of Worldwide Retail, Consumer Goods, Hospitality and Travel at Microsoft, added that GameStop is utilizing their cloud computing technology in their brick-and-mortar stores in new exciting ways and demonstrating the type of retail technology applications that can be built on Azure moving forward.
Furthermore, it'll power a new in-store mobile shopping cart that promises to help expedite the checkout process while gamers that have elected to receive and share information with the company will be on the receiving end of a more personalized shopping experience.
GameStop didn't reveal when the rollout would begin.