Gamestop announced today the opening of a new four thousand square foot retail outlet in San Jose, California. This store is different as it not only contains the usual line of video game related merchandise that Gamestop’s other stores offer but also has within it’s walls a gaming tournament center that is the first and, currently, only one of it’s kind to be found within the borders of the United States. This state of affairs is only temporary, however, as Gamestop plans to develop more stores of this kind all across the country as time goes on. Each Gamestop tournament center has a total of 24 linked stations each equipped with plasma monitor screens at which tournaments will be held on the weekends for the most part and there will also be much larger tournaments that involves all players on the network and which will occur once every quarter.

The Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, Dan DeMatteo, offered this statement: "This world class facility takes GameStop stores and video game tournament opportunities to the next level. With these continued efforts, we are offering customers another way to get the most out of their gaming and are truly giving power to the players." The opening competition will take place Saturday, December 15th and will last from 12:00 PM till 4:00 PM. The game of choice for this first ever Gamestop tournament center contest will be Madden NFL 08 with a grand prize of a one thousand dollar Gamestop shopping spree going to the winner of the Gamestop Madden NFL 08 contest. Gamestop also advises anyone in the San Jose who wishes to compete to arrive early to obtain a spot for themselves.