The new Limerick shop on William Street is the third in the city, adding to current outlets at the Crescent and Parkway shopping centres.

Owned by the US retailer of the same name, GameStop now has 56 shops across Ireland and the UK, with the vast majority in the Republic and the North.

The company says it has a large stock of Wii Fit games, but it claims the “game is expected to be in short supply this Christmas so Wii fans should do their Christmas shopping early!”

GameStop are also operating what it calls “a new innovative ‘Play For Free’ scheme” where “Gamers who purchase any games console between now and Christmas, can return it if they don’t like it for any reason, and they will receive a full store credit in return.” Terms and conditions, of course, apply.

GameStop Ireland will have 50 shops under its control by the end of the month, including two in the UK.

The retailer has massively expanded since the US games giant bought up and re-branded independent Irish retailer GamesWorld in 2003. In the last two years alone, it has nearly doubled the number of locations in the Republic and the North.

Its parent company runs 5,000 stores across Europe, the US, and South America.

Microsoft Ireland are reporting “Huge demand” for pre-orders of Halo
3, what it is calling the fastest pre-sales in video game history,
while Gamestop are say the
demand has been “nothing short of phenomenal”.

Worldwide pre-orders of Halo 3 have exceeded the 1 million according
to Microsoft, the publisher of the game and maker of the Xbox 360 games
console. No Irish sales numbers were released.

It’s set to be released in standard, limited, and “legendary
edition” – according to the publisher, the ‘legendary’ version is
expected to sell out before its September 26 launch.

Midnight openings are expected across Ireland for the launch of the latest Halo game.

“What we’ve experienced is nothing short of phenomenal, Halo 3 has
eclipsed the previous record set by Halo 2″ said Michael Finucane,
commercial director at Gamestop.

“It set a benchmark for others to follow and is a real indication of
how video games has now come to the forefront of the entertainment
industry… The excitement for Halo 3 is incredible”.

Shoppers
waiting outside ‘Game’ on Dawson Street before midnight to be some of
the first to buy the PlayStation 3 in Ireland, there was about 50-60
waiting outside when we arrived.

The first person to buy a PS3 in ‘Game’ on Dawson Street.

We asked this shopper to pause for a second.

HMV
on Grafton Street was also open for the launch. Many Thursday night
drinkers were bemused by the line of about 50 shoppers, HMV says they
had served about 20 people at this stage. While it’s unclear if the
performers were regulars on the famous shopping street, also know for its buskers.

Games Toaster
then made it over to Dublin’s north side to GameStop at Henry Street,
where the crowd was still about 50 strong at around 12.40, GameStop say
that up to 150 people turned out. That’s a DJ on the stairs. And below an indoors shot of GameStop.