Long before Virgin Megastore opened its doors to the Egyptian public, there was Game Valley; a shop that catered to every geek’s and gamer’s needs.
Game Valley was the talk of the town when the gamer culture was still new in Egypt. The shop usually stocked wicked posters to make any geek green with envy, but nowadays they’re limited to selling localized copies of Winning Eleven.
This successful chain started out as a small shop off Syria Street in Mohandiseen, and its attempts to corner the market on copied games were triumphant. As far as we know, Game Valley has never been shut down for copyright infringement and continues to market and operate heavily today.
This place was immensely popular during the PS2 phase; as it carried almost every single PS2 video game at refreshingly low prices. While they still carry an immense collection of PS2, Wii and copied games for other consoles, the market is all about PS3 games now.
The fact that their PS3 games are originals doesn’t justify Game Valley’s attempts to sell the games at a marked up price of around LE 545, while Facebook groups sell the same games for LE 300 legally. They usually carry the latest PS3 games, but you’ll only find a copy or two of seriously popular games such as COD.
The shop also stocks almost all consoles for the same prices that you’ll find elsewhere in Cairo, such as a PS3 slim with two games and a controller for LE 2,900. If you decide to buy a Wii instead, they can modify it for you so that you can make use of their extensive collection of non-original Wii games.
However, their collection of Nintendo DS, PC and GBA games is completely outdated. Several non-original cartridges purchased here stopped functioning after a short while; so you’re better off sticking to original merchandise when it comes to Nintendo.
Game Valley can also fix any broken console that you have. They’re successful in fixing PS3s at rather high prices (LE 1,000 for a new lens, which you can buy or have fixed for much less in Attaba). Their attempts to fix other consoles have been very unsatisfactory, according to our sources.
If you want to buy a game that you’re not too crazy about and just want to try; then head to this shop to pick it up. If it’s not a PS3 game, it should be pretty cheap.
Best bit
Cheap non-original games.
Worst bit
Extremely pricey original games.
360 Tip
Sometimes Game Valley will carry PS3 games that are not out in Virgin yet.
Address: 44 Mossadak St., Dokki¸Cairo , Egypt
Telephone: +2-3748-6585
Hotline: 19130
This article was contributed to Daily News Egypt by Cairo360 www.cairo360.com.
