Microsoft is closing its British flagship retailer in London Leave a comment

Microsoft says it’s shutting down its UK “expertise heart” in London subsequent month, practically six years after it first opened as a 21,000-square-foot Microsoft retailer. “To raised align with its concentrate on digital development, Microsoft has determined to exit the lease on the Microsoft Expertise Centre in London early,” says an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson in a press release to Home windows Central.

The shop initially opened in July 2019, simply months earlier than the pandemic lockdowns started. Microsoft then shortly transitioned it to an “expertise heart” alongside closing its shops within the US in 2020.

I visited the London flagship retailer for its opening day, at a time when the corporate had greater than 80 retail shops worldwide. The large, daring, and British retailer included Floor units on each flooring, HoloLens headsets, an enormous Xbox gaming lounge, and even a real-life McLaren Senna sports activities automobile that you may sit in and play Forza.

It was fairly the venue, set within the coronary heart of Oxford Circus and inside a historic constructing with home windows and ceilings from the Nineteen Twenties. Microsoft spent two years renovating the area, with big 4K video partitions and a gap social gathering that included British celebrities like Peter Crouch.

After transitioning the UK Microsoft retailer to an expertise heart, the software program big commonly used the area for enterprise conferences and companion occasions — turning it right into a showcase for Microsoft services in recent times. An analogous expertise heart nonetheless exists in New York Metropolis, however I believe it’s solely a matter of time till that meets the same destiny to the one throughout the pond.