Melbourne based game retailer Dungeon Crawl has announced that they’re closing down after operating for 20 years in Australia.
The retailer saw a series of transformations over the 20 years, having a massive online presence but also having a store in Elizabeth street (which closed in 2013), selling imported games before you could readily access them in Digital Storefronts.
The owner Adrian has announced on their Facebook page that the brand was purchased by Hanabee (the Dungeon Crawl website now directs straight to Hanabee) with the Dungeon Crawl staff all being retained. Unfortunately, they won’t be stocking games in its new form.
The statement reads:
It is with a bit of sadness that I write this post to let all of you know that the Dungeon Crawl is no longer. We’ve been around for quite some time (20 years in Australia?) and I’ve been running the show as the latest owner for the last 5+ years now. We’ve been to conventions, traveled Japan, had a pop up store and done a heap of other really fun things. Our media presence and website has never really truly portrayed all the work that we do in the industry from behind closed curtains.
Getting to work in the gaming industry was an amazing gift for me (I’ve been a gamer now for over 40 years) and something I will look upon with great fondness. Rebuilding Dungeon Crawl from the ashes after it went into administration all so many years ago is one of my all time greatest victories. Huzzah to me and Huzzah to you, our great customers who have been handing over their hard earned cash for so many years.
It isn’t really bad news though as we were acquired by Hanabee and there will be no staff changes. This means you get the same great service you are already used to and we have a lot more flexibility to do some cool things. We are making some category changes which means no more video games. Honestly there is no margin in them and so many people are moving away from physical media we may as well adapt now instead of being left behind.
So onward and upwards! 2020 from an industry point of view is pretty much a write off so well keep our heads down and focus on 2021.
Now to get to work getting familiar with all these anime titles and getting some of that sweet Kojima swag sorted out.
– Adrian
https://open.spotify.com/episode/78lTmmP2P6Lj7Nsnvq1Ivr
