Today sees the grand opening of a new, official retail store for Nintendo, fourteen years since the first one arrived back in 2005.
The store is located at the Dizengoff Center, a shopping mall in Tel Aviv, Israel. It'll be opening at 6pm local time today (so that's 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm UK / 5pm CET) and a live countdown has begun on its official website. The opening comes just a couple of months after the country received an official online store.
It's amazing to think that up until now, Nintendo has only had one retail store across the entire planet. Nintendo New York first opened its doors back in May 2005 after a complete rebranding; originally, the building was actually a Pokémon-specific shop. A Tokyo store is planned to be joining both the New York and Tel Aviv stores later this year, taking the grand total up to three.
Does this mean that we can expect more and more stores to pop up all over the world? We're sure that new stores in places such as the UK, Australia, central Europe and the US' west coast would go down pretty well for starters, so here's hoping for several more of these retail delights.
Would you like a Nintendo store near you? Have you ever been to Nintendo NY? Let us know in the comments below.
[source nintendo.co.il, via nintendosoup.com]
Comments 137
Israel? Well that's not very handy...
If only Nintendo expand their branch to Indonesia.....
I hope they sell 64DD hardware there!
Can they at least bring one to every major city?... or is that too much to ask. 😪
@Tantani, ta-da!
Tel Aviv??? Why not Detroit???
Bring it to Amsterdam please!!
We need one in the San Francisco Bay Area.
We could use a few in Canada
We had an official store in Bogotá, Colombia during the the Gamecube - Wii era. I remember doing a really long line to get Smash Bros Brawl back in 08. Sadly, with the poor sales in the last years of the wii and with the Wii U, it closed a couple years ago.
@Franz yes that would be perfect have 1 in New York then the bay area
I was thinking another store in the US or UK..... Maybe I'll visit New York soon.
I bet the store sells Switches Nintendo games and merchandise. 😁
wtf, eh london, paris, toyoko much, i dont remember seeing Tel Aviv as one of the clocks
Tel Aviv before Tokyo, LA, London, or Singapore? That's an odd choice. Well good for them
Tel Aviv is a pretty weird choice. I would personally love to have a Nintendo store in Toronto
Here you go, Nintendolife sports fans, a legitimate news story, not a rumor, flavour piece, emulation box, leak, port, niche hardware, Sega thing or pixel platformer! Let’s see 100+ comments about how much you’re loving this!
The next big city that should get it in the U.S. is Chicago. I’m surprised there isn’t one there yet.
That’s awesome. Nintendo NY is a really cool store to visit, so it’s good to see them open another one.
Los Angeles please
@Cartune it really is, actually. i think a store in like a place not to far away from a counrty corner and pretty far away from the centre would be a lot too.
@ryancraddock my man!😁👍
@ryancraddock @Tantani beat me to it haha
Weird to open your 2nd store in a country with less than 9 Million people. (IMO)
I've said this before and I'll say this again, Nintendo needs a Canadian store. Whether that's a brick and mortar location in Toronto or an online store similar to Nintendo UK. Canada is a HUGE market for Nintendo. We may be small in population, but numbers continually show Nintendo sells incredibly well in this country, sometimes even more than the U.S., and certainly more than Israel.
Philadelphia, PA!!!
Slow, careful expansion. Can’t wait for the Nintendo london store to finally open in 3023.
You think they could put a handful of them in large urban centers around the country. LA or SF, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, etc. I'm surprised there's not one in Seattle given you can't really shop the one at the Nintendo of America HQ. XD
How is there not one in Japan already? 🤔
Of all places they could've chosen, why Tel Aviv? From a selfish perspective, London would've been a lot better, or any major UK city really.
@DaWizerd Yeah, it’s kind of surprising. Although when I visited Japan, Nintendo did have a very strong presence in every single electronics store I browsed.
I was hoping we'd get one in London. Instead we got M&M's World.
@mattchew I was thinking somewhere bigger like Toronto or another major city.
@daveh30 It is for people in Israel. It would be just as handy to open one in your area and just as inconvenient to someone in a different part of the world. But I get what your saying. We all want one near us.
Wait, there isn't one in Japan???
That's mental
@Franz
Yeah they do need another one in America on the west coast (though I live in Oklahoma). The one we have is in the busiest, most-expensive city to visit.
Man, I was hoping that they were opening one in Washington DC, Because then I wouldn't have to drive for several hours to go to a Nintendo store
How about they have an online store everyone could shop from .
This is wrong. 1. The size of this shop suggests it will not be like the shop in New York (see point 2) 2. There is already an official Nintendo shop in Korea (Yongsan, Seoul) that mainly sells Switchs and games, but some other stuff too. This opened last year I think. I guess the Isreal store will be similar to this, focussing mainly on selling Switchs and games and not providing the range of goods that the New York store does.
I suggest changing the title and subtitle to prevent spreading of misinformation.
London next please 🙏🏻
As an israeli i think that the reason is that Nintendo didnt support any nintendo product in israel until around february this year, that means that prices were always extremely high, stores didnt have any support when it came to fixing your devices and only a handful of games arrived here, that means that we had to use fake online accounts and in order to play many games we had to pirate them , every store that sold Nintendo goods had every physical means to also "hack" every past console and handheld , you could crack your device at around 400 stores, but there wasnt even one that could support your systems and games , i guess that opening a store is a good idea to stop all of that and get things straight.
BTW Microsoft alos brought official xbox support here a couple of years ago, why? propably because every other xbox 360 console was actually cracked/hacked and you could buy pirated games at every bazzar , which is insane , most xbox games in israel were pirated ones because we had zero support and ,well , wanted to play these games at any means.
@Yobreeze @Yobreeze
https://www.facebook.com/DovJosephAloof/videos/2383909121631960/
i think we'll be okay
London would be great
@Yobreeze no, they will sell anything Nintendo, toys, life style, fashion and of course, switch 3ds and games
I suppose Columbus, Ohio is too much to ask for?
Tel Aviv makes sense to me. Israel is a popular tourist destination because of all the history there.
common Nintendo, you can do it better, what about bellow Eiffel tower, here in Paris???
In Melbourne we've got a Nintendo Experience store in the city above an EB Games, but I haven't been yet so I don't know if that's like a Nintendo store or not?
@Tantani Perhaps I underestimated the store but anyway it is similar to the Korean one so it cannot be described as the first in 14 years. I found this video of it quickly on youtube. Again it sells more than switch and games but the focus is that. https://youtu.be/ion74ZHiFho
If Nintendo had a large chain of stores like the Apple Stores, man oh man, imagine all of the T-shirts and baseball caps and plush toys and art books and video game accessories that they could sell! It could go a long way toward strengthening the brand and the various video game franchises. Expanding the number of Nintendo stores should be a top priority for Nintendo.
@rex_rex in Israel we have a song that goes as follows (free translation)
“I have been to Paris and Rome,
Saw the 7 wonders of the world,
In the North Pole and south,
But there no place like the country Israel!”
(It sounds better in Hebrew lol)
You can’t go any better than Israel 😎
I live in US, not newsworthy for me
I suppose it’s too much to ask for a Nintendo store in Louisiana? Or at least Texas, for that matter? 😆
That’s really cool that they’re opening another store! I hope its just as successful as Nintendo NY, and I hope that lots more people make awesome memories.
Please open an Indian eshop, the games are kind of insanely expensive here.
New York makes sense.
@Tantani
NYC (just the city): 65.2M tourist visitors last year
Israel (the entire country): 3.6M tourist visitors lat year
NYC Nintendo Store: Opened in 2001
We do not need a song - Logo works better 😉
I mean, I feel every country and state should have at least 1, especially with GameStop being in dire straights, but maybe that's just me...
So the Jews are indeed Nintendo's chosen people.
Looks like with enough shekels you can do anything
OMG!
Im over there right now and they already sell copies of mario maker 2!!!!
its gonna be a long night!
proof : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=875874502782594&set=pcb.2048634935432708&type=3&theater&ifg=1
and another :
https://www.facebook.com/DovJosephAloof/videos/2383909121631960/
I'm probably the only one here who lives in Israel (actually the store is 15 minutes of driving away from my home!) And I literally can't explain how excited I am. Nintendo didn't have representation AT ALL in Israel until somewhere between January - March 2019, and having all of this Nintendo support all of a sudden is making me extremely happy! Thank you so much, Nintendo!
@Sonicdit
im from ramat gan bro
a great day indeed:)
@nintendolie lmao
@Agramonte Israel is also known as “mini America” and “the 51state”
Tel Aviv is known as “Mini NY”
Btw, I have been to NY, definitely one of the best cities in the world!
@Sonicdit I am from Tel Aviv my friend!
Tel Aviv seems like an odd off the wall choice for second store, will be nice for Israeli's I'm sure, though i'm curious how popular Nintendo is there @Tantani is Nintendo pretty popular in Israel?
Just put them in every mall like GameStop. I go to the mall like once a month for Pokémon Community Day with my friends.
@NinChocolate While I agree that occasionally some articles on this site aren’t super relevant, flavor pieces and rumors generate discussion, which is why many of us are here. This isn’t just a news site, you know, and nobody is making you click on the articles that don’t interest you.
Israel is not where I expected a second Nintendo store to open, but good for them!
One in London would be nice too please Nintendo...
@Yobreeze is right. There is already an official store in Korea. I have been there several times. So this would be the third store. However, none of these stores really rival the one in NY (maybe the Japanese one will). Still it’s good to see official stores popping up globally.
@mattchew
Gather around the campfire kids, I have many Detroit horror stories...
@daveh30 no kidding. I'm thinking as I'm reading it, maybe Boston? Nope 5,500 miles away. Not going there anytime soon.
The one in NYC is awesome. Glad I'm one of the lucky ones that can go to it conveniently. Don't know why they don't expand elsewhere. Plenty of Nintendo fans outside of NY and Israel.
@dougphisig we aren’t the biggest Nintendo market of course, the number of switch systems in Japan is starting to close on the number of people in Israel, but there are many people here who really like Nintendo and have a switch or a 3ds (or both) and of course Wii and game boy and all of that
Many here love Pokémon Mario and Zelda and everything Nintendo....
But since we didn’t have any support until lately so there is no statistics to how many switch consoles are actually sold here currently but it is popular here
And yet the Nintendo Online app is not in the Israeli App and Google Stores along with other games like Dr. Mario World, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and others.. it's really annoying.. it feels like Nintendo is only "half" in Israel.
When I contacted the NA support they didn't have an answer for that, the Israeli support didn't even answer to me, so it's just to be in the air with no answers..
This is probably an unfair wish since I live in the US, but I'd love for there to be a closer Nintendo store than New York City; the closest city I've been to was Philadelphia, and that was on a business trip. The West Coast sorely needs one, and another in the US's interior (or Canada) would be nice too.
@Cartune When I saw this article, a number of possible locations ran through my mind. Tel Aviv was DEFINITELY not on that list!
I wonder if Tel Aviv is a market Nintendo is hoping to make a bigger push in. Or is it already established there. I can’t imagine a company like Nintendo putting up a store in a place where they aren’t selling well.
Israel? Isn't that a dangerous place?
@outsider83 It’s actually Nintendo’s distributor for Israel (not owned by Nintendo) who opened the store. It sounds like they just started disturbing Nintendo’s products in that market this year.
For everyone who asks why in Tel Aviv that’s because we recently finally got Nintendo support in Israel (from an Israeli)
@gamefreak77 nope from a Israeli (but sometimes the hamas throws rockets at us but Tel Aviv is kinda safe)
lol i waited in the line for 8 and a half hours...
i was the 3rd/4th to enter it
@Tantani Me too
Would be nice if more locations opened up worldwide. Specifically, I'd love one to open in Phoenix, AZ, or even California, despite how much I dislike traveling; at least it would only be one state over, rather than across the country!
Ah yes. The very illegitimate state of Israel
@Tantani For all of us from Art Schools - Tel-Aviv is "The White City"... thanks to all the Bauhaus architecture you have over there.
My girl has been a few times and loves Tel-Aviv, and we have friends who moved there. Good times I am told.
@imgrowinglegs I don't get how they don't open at least a couple in UK.I'd love one in leeds just for the sake of it but I can go without.would be good though
For those questioning why Nintendo hasn't opened a store in every marketable location possible: it might be a quality issue. Some businesses don't try to open new franchise locations without being sure that they are managed and maintained according to a very high and desired standard. Opening stores in very select locations is how they can expand (slowly) without sacrificing quality for their consumers. NYC, Seoul, and Tel Aviv also have huge international appeal and tourism, so the high quality combined with a large and diverse audience (that will help to spread their experience among their own communities via word-of-mouth) is what Nintendo might be attempting to do with this. We could see more stores in rich, high-traffic cities eventually by this method (and still sell their products in other stores and online, like they still do now), or they could change direction and start putting stores in every major location, if they sense it is profitable (and respectable) to do so.
Another famous example of this "quality over quanity" franchising strategy is how McDonald's locations did not expand much at all outside of select cities in California and Midwest US until after the McDonald brothers stopped being involved with the restaurants.
I wish they would open one in the Garden State Plaza New Jersey I would go
Why not Chicago, Las Vegas, Montreal, Berlin or San Francisco?
I’m really surprised there’s still only one store here in the States! You’d think by now Nintendo would have one open in Washington or somewhere on the west coast by now? Talk about going about it slowly! Lol
Great choice, Israel is a beautiful country. Good strategic placement, not opening too many too fast.
I still wouldn't mind some additional stores in major US cities in the next ten years. The current New York store is an obvious one. Perhaps one in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Chicago. Charleston is a youthful city with two big tourist turn-outs a year, could be a decent option.
I'm not sure where a Nintendo store might be a good fit (and operate at a profit) in states like Florida or California, as many major cities in the former are comprised of retired seniors who live on a budget and may not have a strong enough relationship with Nintendo products to make a purchase, and some of the obvious major cities in the latter are demographically split between high earners, tech industry workers and lower income families who may not be able to justify big purchases for entertainment, very narrow economic middle ground between high and low income individuals. California is a tough one.
I feel as though San Francisco isn't the most attractive place to open a business due to the high cost of operating a business, as well as the current homeless issue and drug abuse epidemic taking place there. San Diego or Santa Barbara could be alright, not sure how targeted a location in either of those cities would be though, not familiar with how many Nintendo fans are in the area. I can't think of a major northern California city that sticks out as an attractive option that could compare to a location like New York. It's a hard nut to crack, that state.
They probably should put at least a small one in every city with a major regional subsidy (Kyoto, Redmond, Frankfurt, Melbourne, and Seoul).
@thesilverbrick I’m with you on that, my comment was intending to call out those who complain about each of those article types which I have no complaints about myself:)
Nintendo store Orlando FL
@andrew20 I'm anticipating an Orlando store opening near or on Universal property with the theme park expansion.
If one opened up in Australia, it would most likely be in either Melbourne or Sydney. If Melbourne, the Nintendo Experience at EB Games may change a bit. If Sydney, everything should stay the same.
The weirdest location ever to choose to open an official store. Nintendo doesn't even have official presence in Israel/Middle-East as far as I know?
I would've thought the Tokyo store would have been the second store, but seems that will be the third.
It is really weird especially since Nintendo only just officially entered the country.
Of all the places in the world, they choose Israel? What a waste.
Should have put it in London.
@PKBegley
your father's sperm...
that's the real waste.
@NinChocolate Ah, gotcha. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Ib4 all of the subtly anti-Israel comments. Oh wait too late.
Would be handy if it was in a place that actually mattered.
I'm hyped as one can be especially cuz I live in Israel
But I cant stop to wonder why here I understand the tourism bit but the second store ever... here it was weird enough that the first store wasn't in Japan, Nintendo origin location, but ok America big place, but tell Aviv.
Yeah also banjos in smash
Really, Nintendo? You think you'd set up in a more major city
I want an Australian store, maybe in Sydney or Canberra
So awesome. Israel is amazing 😍❤️
I would love a Nintendo store in Dallas, Texas, or Kansas City, Missouri. I would just like one near where I live. I don't want too much time off to physically go to one that's 1000+ miles away from the Midwest area.
I figured they would try to have one in every location on earth that has appeared as a region in Pokemon. After all, Unova from Black and White is based on New York. Sure, we'd have a lot of stores in Japan; Kantō, Kansai (Johto), Kyūshū (Hoenn), Hokkaido (Sinnoh), but we'd also have them in France (Kalos), Hawaii (Alola), and somewhere in the UK (Galar) most likely around England. If you really want to get nuts, put one in Phoenix, Arizona to represent Orre. (You know, the region everyone remembers from those weird GameCube titles.) Israel though? Good for them, but that was the last place I expected a Nintendo store to pop up in.
London would have been nice. Maybe midlands... Well, interesting choice.
I am extremely confused by this. Not only that there isn't a store in Tokyo, but Tel Aviv? I would at least think they'd do Frankfurt or something centrally located in Europe (and Germany is the largest video game market in Europe). But I'm not one for having them everywhere or more than 1 in a country/region (sorry west coast). Once you start plopping them everywhere, it kind of loses its magic, imo. I love that feeling of going to the NYC store whenever I'm in town - maybe a few months apart, maybe a year. I'm also so pumped to go and see what's new - it feels special every time and I don't think it's have that same magical vibe if it was everywhere.
Wouldnt be surprised if Nintendo opens a store in Beijing once the Switch and a large enough selection of games are made available to sell in China.
Tel Aviv? Seriously why not London?
@AshFoxX
Hawaii? Eh ... Not so sure about that. You can't really just visit Hawaii to go to a Nintendo Store.
Sweet! I'm an American living in Israel, in the north. The only time I ever saw Nintendo products here was five years ago, at a mall in Haifa. It pains me to not see Nintendo represented along with Microsoft and Sony when I go into electronics stores here. Hopefully this will mark the beginning of a significant Nintendo presence throughout the country. Don't know when I'll be able to get down to this store, but I can't wait.
My gut says any US-based Nintendo Store after New York should be in the Spokane, Washington-area (Sp-Oh-Can). That’s simply due to it being the smallest known city to have an Apple Store.
2 possible store locations in Spokane itself:
1. River Park Square shopping area. Same place as the Apple Store.
2. NorthTown Mall: a mall located within the aforementioned Northern most area of town.
In terms of other areas near Spokane:
Hillyard WA: A small town currently gaining a boon in buisness.
Spokane Valley, WA: More so the Spokane Valley Mall, or somewhere in the Indiana Ave. area, an area with a lot of recent apartment installations, a large office building with space for sale/rent, and the recent opening of a Duluth Trading Company store.
Liberty Lake, WA: A Town as of late receiving a lot of urban renewal, ranging from the upcoming development of a new High School, Apartments, and a ton of additions in the Business Park area. Since 2001, it was mostly 2 large strip malls, and a living community.
(Although not in the Spokane Area:) Post Falls, ID: following the same deal as Liberty Lake and Hillyard, only difference being the distinct rarity that is illuminated street signs. (Shocking; I know)
@ryancraddock i dont get it... why not in lebanon next to it? Cuz i live there and it makes me mad i cant go to it bcuz u know...
...Well I don't understand the idea behind this but good for the fans that live there I guess.
This comment section is: “Nintendo should put a store (insert city where I live)”.
Nintendo needs to open a lot more of these in major cities around the world.
Anyone who says that "Nintendo should've opened in my city the second store" I can say to you a few things:
1.THIS ISN'T NINTENDO JAPAN'S DECISION!!!!!!! This move is a part of tor gaming's (the now official nintendo distributer in israel) decision in order to let people know that Nintendo are here. This has nothing to do with "why not london, seattle, california, or any other city in the world".
2.Just look at the comment by @refael as he did a way better job than me about explaining the whole picture.
3.Again, This isn't Nintendo of japan's thing to decide! Those guys have much more important things to do other than decide where would be the next best location to build an official store. That is absolutely Nintendo of Israel's decision to pull this move stratigicaly and financially.
tl;dr if anyone wants a store in their city, Doug Bowser and Tatsumi Kimishima will not give a single care if you live in London
Why can't companies open stuff in the DC region? It's a fairly big area...
When I visited the store in NY as well as merch it had a massive screen wall showing playable MK8, a display of StarFox characters and a glass counter containing a history of handhelds with each version of GameBoy through to 3DS. For selfie opportunities throughout the store there were life-size models of Mario and DK.
Nintendo NY is awesome. I go there almost every week, so it’s great to see another one pop up. Here’s to more around the globe!
Interesting location. I would think that Tokyo, London or Paris would be better choices.
That picture is obviously photoshopped … why though?
Nintendo Store in Eaton Center in Downtown Toronto. Please.
The Nintendo store in Tel Aviv is run by a local distributor, not Nintendo themselves.
Nintendo NY is run by Nintendo themselves, as will Nintendo Tokyo when it opens.
I use the internet and eshop to buy games so have no need to visit a store in 2019!
@pipapaul It's not photoshopped, I was there it looked like this before it opened but now it's different.
@westman98 Stephan Bole, the president of Nintendo of Europe and some japanese nintendo representants was there.
I cannot wait to see all the Israelis lose their minds during next year's E3 Direct!
@Yoav
Official Nintendo Reps being at a Nintendo store doesnt necessarily mean the store is run by them, though it definitely implies that Nintendo's relationship with their Israeli distributor is strong.
Detroit in the old train depot that Ford Motor company took over to restore making shops and I heard a off the record there will be a video game store in it by a major video game player
Card only games?
I'm looking forward to paying for my games with shekels. Shekel! Shekel! Shekel! I made you out of clay! I couldn't even pay, because you're made of clay!
@nintendolie lol, we are. The place is not too big, or too impressive, but It feels great to have full nintendo support in here finally. IDK why Israel though, we're just 9M people.
Please open one in Los Angeles!!!!
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