Broccoli Leaving Retail

Japanese character goods development and retail company Broccoli has announced plans to exit consumer-level retail to focus on development and manufacturing. On June 1st, retail chain Animate, which obtained 11% ownership of Broccoli in 2008, will take over operation of Broccoli’s mail-order business and Broccoli’s 16 “Gamers” retail stores throughout Japan. The Gamers stores will be renamed “AniBro Gamers” to designate the Animate & Broccoli partnership. Animate currently operates 100 retail stores throughout Japan. Animate will pay Broccoli roughly 250 million yen (about $3.02 million USD) for control of Broccoli’s retail operations.

Anibro? Really?

Source: Anime News Network