HMV's Simon Fox - 2

We are able to, and I'd say we're still just at the beginning of the journey on that. We do use it, and probably in the early days we've used it more with music and film partners. So it's a big opportunity.

We think there's a real market for it, and we've got the five centres now. Occupancy in those centres is very encouraging. I think what it gives games the opportunity to do, obviously, is firstly to try games they don't own; to play games on a higher quality of equipment than they might own at home - because it is fantastic state-of-the-art kit that we have; we obviously have the competitive environment and the prizes; and the social environment.

Frankly, it allows people - if they want to - to nip out in their lunch hour to play games that they might otherwise be unable to do. And in some locations we're attracting tourists and other people.

So I'm very encouraged by Gamerbase - it's still relatively small within our estate, but it's something we're committed to rolling out. We have put Gamerbase pods, which are smaller versions, into 100 stores now, so what we're doing there - and this isn't a pay-to-play pod, it's essentially a free play - is bringing interactivity into the stores.

As a retailer we feel we've got to make stores interesting - they've got to be a place where people want to come and spend time. Gamerbase is providing those two functions. One, it's a pay-to-play environment and the other is the demonstration capability.

What's always differentiated us, firstly, is that we are specialist stores. We have specialist staff, we try and make it a fun environment, and actually we think that having other product around does make it even more interesting. Gamers also like films, and music, and clothing, and everything else we sell.

As a brand we're also moving more generally into live, so we now own music venues and festivals, and we're growing a ticketing business. It's clear that in a digital age, where people generally at home consume digital product - that might be music, might be games - they have an equal passion for live experiences. In the case of music it's obvious, it's the live gig or festival, and it's interesting in the music market that live is now bigger than recorded.

The model is completely changing - an artist is now making almost all of their money from live performance, rather than recorded performance, so the HMV brand is trying to follow that value chain by itself moving into live.

Gamerbase fits very nicely into that, because we do think there is a market - we don't know how big it is, but it's a growing market - for people to want to enjoy games in a fun, competitive, social environment. The opportunity to have big events is a really interesting one, because people are innately competitive and social, so if we can provide that service profitably, that will be entirely consistent with the way the company has been travelling.

They're like music festivals - short bursts, and it's not clear if the market is ready for something that's all year round or whether it is these big, short bursts of people coming together.

Yes, definitely. It's an area we're really interested in, and I think we've now got the fixed venues - places like the Hammersmith Apollo - we've got the festivals, and we've got the Gamerbase units. We have the infrastructure to be able to put on big events, and if we can find a way of doing it, we'd love to. We just have to find the right formula.

Definitely - and we've also been amazed at just how much interest there is in meeting the developers. You can understand when we have a public appearance from Paul McCartney why the place is rammed - but equally we've had Hideo Kojima, Will Wright, and there's been great interest in meeting them.