It's been revealed the GameStop subsidiary EB Games will be closing the doors of 19 of 300 plus stores across Australia by the end of January.
In a statement provided to Kotaku Australia, the nationwide video game retailer explained how it was "constantly evaluating its property portfolio" and "after careful consideration" decided to shut down a number of "unprofitable" stores. Staff at these select stores will be given the opportunity to relocate to nearby stores.
Despite these closures, the statement went onto mention how the Aussie video game retailer would continue to open more "large format stores" combining both EB Games and Zing Pop Culture – a retailer that started out in 2014 and is a division of EB Games.
These hybrid stores, combined with our strong omni-channel offering, 6 million loyalty members and 300+ locations across Australia, will see EB Games continue to be one of Australia’s largest specialty retailers.
You can see the full list of affected stores over on Kotaku. As part of this process, all stores impacted by this are having a stocktake sale – discounting products from 20 to 60 percent. One store has reportedly already been closed and converted into an EB hybrid store.
Last September, GameStop revealed it was set to close 180-200 "underperforming" stores globally by the end of the fiscal year.
[source kotaku.com.au]
Comments 45
Most of them are located in regional areas, so that comes as no surprise.
There's only one store in Western Sydney that's closing down, and I'm not sure if it would be worth the 30-40 minute drive as I assume that most of the good stock (particularly consoles, controllers and the like) would have been reallocated to a nearby store, and most of the games are likely unsealed, with the covers poked and prodded by countless other customers to the extent that it is an outright lie to suggest that they are "new", hence why I almost never buy anything from them except for the odd exclusive.
All GameStop stores will close in Sweden during 2020 as well. No wonder, with the extremely high prices compared to the competition (often 100 or 200 kronor higher). Even the preowned games are sometimes more expensive than new versions of the same title in other stores. Will not miss them.
https://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.728018/gamestop-stanger
Seems to be the same for the other Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Finland).
Just like Blockbuster video or even music/book stores, game retailers are going the way of dinosaurs.
Any medium that can be digitized has no future in the real world.
@Quarth : EB usually charges full price unless there's a sale (and their sales are usually still more expensive than what other stores sell games for).
Amazon routinely offers the cheapest price, which I do not feel comfortable about as I feel that their aim is to keep costs low so that they can run local businesses to the ground and screw over the customers as well in the long term.
@NoTinderLife : I suspect that there will always be a market for physical media, however they will become more of a niche commodity as the masses favour short-term convenience over long-term autonomy.
I have little to no interest in digital purchases. At least my Switch library won't be going anywhere (short of a disaster, in which case, I would have more important things to worry about than losing my games). Music on CDs and films on Blu-ray still provide significantly superior quality than their digital counterparts (which in contrast are very heavily compressed), and being a film-lover particularly, I would much rather prefer to own the best quality version of the film/TV series that is available for purchase.
If, however, I could purchase lossless quality music and as a minimum, DRM-free Blu-ray quality films digitally, then that would be a game changer, but unless the quality of the digital versions match the physical versions, I am not interested.
To date, I am yet to subscribe to a streaming service as I have more than enough Blu-rays/DVDs to watch, and I can also rip them and watch them on other devices if I so choose (and they won't require a constant internet connection either).
@Quarth Wow thanks, I had totally missed that. I have an open pre-order for Animal Crossing that I had better go and swap for credit this weekend.
I tend to only use Spel & Sånt nowadays anyway. They're normally a few kronor more expensive but they're independent and the service is always great.
I’m just here for the “Fire sale” jokes.
One of these is just down the road at a fairly quiet shops. Add to the fact that there are two more stores within a five I'm radius, I always wondered how they made any money. I guess they didn't. Still I like the 7 day change of mind return policy. I have been underwhelmed by a few critical darlings (Mario Odyssey and Diablo 3 in particular) and I took advantage of this policy.
@Radioactivesuit I'm just here to see if someone's being a total d**k about a real catastrophe.
And they won't be missed.
Used to buy from EB but haven't for a long time. Amazon or Ozgameshop all the way now.
F in the chat bois.
@Silly_G Yeah, it's no wonder EB and GS are on their way out.
The game prices in Sweden are overall pretty high, so when GS asks for 699 kronor for a new Nintendo game and maybe 599 for a pre-used copy, you know they are taking too damn much for it.
@vyseofhr You're welcome.
Yeah, the guys at Spel&Sånt are awesome, they even import games from the US and Asia. Another great store (sadly only online) is Spelbutiken. And to some extent, I think Webhallen is also good.
@Quarth : I don't even particularly mind the prices so much as I loathe the fact that the overwhelming majority of their games are unsealed and their stupid policies allow people to return games so that they can resell them as "new".
@Silly_G Yeah, that is also BS. You don't know if the games are new or not when buying them.
@Quarth : Hence why I only buy games from them at launch (in the case of exclusives), I will wait for a considerable discount, or otherwise request a sealed copy (if there is one available).
I have a Level 4 card (which is the highest level) weirdly enough (probably because I scooped up the remaining Wii Us at one of their stores a couple of years ago ) but I don't think that it has ever come in handy as I don't buy used games from them (I can find used games in better condition on eBay), nor do I trade anything in (as they offer you next to nothing).
@Silly_G Yeah, they tell you that you're making a great deal when selling to or trading with them, when in fact you can get more for your games doing it privately. But I guess it has to do with convenience for some people.
@Silly_G
Least your not one of the people that accrued enough carrots to get Level 5 card from EB!
I use them for price matching only and the people at my local store are pretty good to deal with and have a general chat on gaming.
Only a matter of time before gamestop disappear completely. Seen a member of staff in an Irish store recently giving incorrect information to a customer so they could sell them a more expensive product. Not cool.
@WhirlyWoo : There's a Level 5 card? Holy Miltank.
The reason GAME's prices are high is due to overheads (40 GAME stores are set to close this year as well, 27-28 already have had notice given). Places like Amazon, Shopto etc have lower overheads/can offset costs elsewhere. Same as supermarkets and Argos, someone buying a table is paying for a video game as well.
GAME service used to be good, but for a while they've given farcical information just to sell something. I've been booted out of a store for correcting staff as apparantly "i know nothing". But yet, they believed the Switch Lite was dockable.
Gamestop usually have great deals on new sealed games, but not used games. Doesen't make sense, but it's true.
All media stores is closed, and when gamestop closes there is about online shops left.
I am barely on shopping malls anymore after Spaceworld, GAME, Platekompaniet etc. closed.
I feel sorry for the staff at EB but I'm shocked that it's only 19 that are closing. I have 3 within 7km of my outer suburbs Melbourne home home which seems excessive. One in particular is in a 'factory outlet' complex which is usually empty.
It's not gonna stop. Even sitting aside the shift to digital that a lot of people are making, game stores like this just don't really offer much, if anything better than buying the exact same products from an online retailer. Cheaper and delivered to your door.
This is capitalism, like it or not.
The only game stores I expect to stick around are places that deal in retro and out of print stuff. Things you cannot easily get online after a quick 5 minute search.
Sad to hear, I do like the staff that I deal with, some of them were willing to go the extra mile to help me out with warranty and stuff when they didn't have to but at the same time I really hate how they have excessive postage and handling costs for online shipments on sale items.
I attribute it also to Amazon now being more prevalent in Australia since you get free shipping if you're a prime member and Amazon tends to have the lowest price or price matching to other stores.
@Silly_G
Special invite only and not fully sure on the criteria, last batch went out in December.
https://cdn.pressstart.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/EB-Games-Level-5.jpg
I hope the employees land on their feet.
@Silly_G That's the problem with their model world wide.
Last year I bought a single switch game at Gamestop in the USA. They also have the open covers on the shelf. The employees didn't like that I demanded a sealed box. They had trouble finding one and I was about to leave when they finally did.
No customer wants to pay full price for stuff that isn't actually new.
@WhirlyWoo : Oh, wowsers. They probably give those to people who have bought a ton of used games and traded in their copies of Super Mario Odyssey for 17 cents in in-store credit. I doubt that I would ever be given such regal treatment as I'm a dirty plebeian who only buys new.
I also used to go there to price match (I don't anymore, but I did price-match the Pokéball Plus bundles of the Let's Go games after waiting at Target for what felt like 20 minutes, and no-one served me).
For game sales, EB/GameStop (and apparently GAME) seemed to have worked hard to chase away their customers out of pure arrogance over a long time. It's not even about digital. I used to shop EB/GameStop all the time. Their ridiculous "we open the product before you buy it to prevent shrink" policies and the like would just send me to the Best Buy at the other end of the same parking lot more often than not where I could have a full inventory of games at the same or lower prices, without being upsold on "game insurance", and get the product in an actual sealed box. They'd have to have been a lot cheaper, or a lot more fun to shop at than the competition to win my sale.
Meanwhile I have a local GS now that I didn't have then. I've been there a few times around the time of the Switch launch. It was a lot of fun, and I was going to shop there regularly, it's just down the street. Then months later they replaced half the inventory with apparel, phones, and toys. I haven't been back since I bought Disgaia 5 there on launch day when Amazon decided to illegally deliver mine into the mailbox, and the mailman seized it as unauthorized use of a USPS mailbox (no postage!). They had 2 copies, total in the store. In the drawer behind the counter.
I went back to them online and bought some stuff, but they again jaded me with their PS5 KH3 limited edition oversell. I got in and ordered in the morning pre-order, was guaranteed, and then their retail stores (that weren't supposed to be selling then) sold the inventory, and they allocated most of the online inventory to fill the in-store orders, etc. Meh. I buy occasionally, and I'll be sad when they go under, yet, it's a store I'm standing in front of weekly and last went in almost 3 years ago. I keep telling myself I should take advantage of it before it's gone...and yet, even then, they don't really incentivize me to do so. I subscribed to the Pro rewards...maybe some of the new changes there will bring me back.
@Silly_G You're right about video, streamed content is ultra compressed. BD is also pretty heavily compressed, but less so, so yea, for video, physical remains the choice for the enthusiast.
Music, though, you're a bit behind on, where the quality digital music vendors are selling lossless, and if you're willing to spend audiophile prices, high resolution audio that's not available at all on disc outside the doomed SACD, and, arguably, vinyl formats - so that's a place where digital quality exceeds physical media quality. (Caveat: UMG's audible watermarking "scandal." )
Reading the headline, I was anticipating the end of it to be "in Canada".
While I always feel sad for employees losing their job, I have a hard time understanding how these stores are still in business. I remember going there all the time like 20 years ago, and at that time those stores weren't so bad. Prices were not always the best, but their were ok and staff was generally cool, and they actually often had the things I wanted.
Fast-forward these days, and we have stores that never have what I want in stock, prices that are always equal or higher than everywhere else, used game prices that are an insult (and are affecting the videogame industry badly), plus harrassing and unfriendly staff. Oh, and fraudulent advertising too, when stores refuse to honour their own advertised specials from their flyers.
I kid you not, one of their clerks even insulted me once because I wasn't interested in the game he was sugesting to me, as if I was completely stupid for not liking his suggestion.
This, and their horrible trend of trying to sell unwrapped and loose discs/carts as "new". --- "I can guarantee you it was never played". Yeah, right. Look pal, it's openned, there's no way for me to know it's new. They sometime REFUSED to sell me an unwrapped copy (even if they had some in stock).
I rarely go there anymore now. And I encourage my kids (and friends) to not shop there either.
Stores like these will often say that online retailers make things hard for them, but it's not really true. They dug their own grave by simply not giving a damn about the customer's experience. And any intelligent customer will do the math. Why shop there? If I'm not getting any good service or a good in-store experience, what's the reason? Between not getting service in-store, or not getting service online BUT at least get a better price, I'd say stores like these are simply pushing people towards the online competition. So, in a sense, it's their own fault.
Good riddance to those useless stores!!!
@Silly_G If you live in Sydney, shouldn't you be buying from the Gamesmen anyway? I live in Melbourne and use their service with delivery, I don't mind the waiting time.
From the few times I shopped at EB I realized it was overpriced with little rewards that most customers don't care about. The one real redeeming factor is that you can "borrow" games for 2 weeks for free and return them with a refund after you're done playing.
@Earl_Grey Look tea man, we didn't start the fire. You know, the fire's been burnin' since the world's been turnin'
@Varkster : As much as I want to support Gamesmen, their games aren't always sealed (I get that Nintendo doesn't seal their own games a lot of the time), and I haven't been happy having received games in less than ideal condition.
I have been to their store a few times over the years (which is a bit out of my way). Sadly, nowadays, it's filled with more board/parlour games than actual video games.
I wish them the very best though, and I probably stop by once a year. I would certainly be going to them more frequently (if not almost exclusively) if they were located a bit closer.
The only thing I bought from GameStop for several years time was consoles themselves. Now I wonder if they’re gonna be around to get my PS5 at.
@NEStalgia : Video will always be heavily compressed.
Most films you see at the cinema are only a tiny, tiny fraction relative to the size of the raw files. I have a camera that shoots at 4K DCI resolution (real 4K, not Ultra HD which is marketed as "4K"), and the sizes are quite small (4GB per minute of footage at 50fps) when compared to higher end industry brands such as the Red and Arri Alexa, both of which are frequently used for cinema releases (indies may opt for cheaper cameras), where only a few minutes of footage can balloon to hundreds of gigs (and we did shoot a short at the RAW format at film school, and the sizes were absolutely ridiculous, and the battery life of the camera pathetically short ).
What is surprising, however, is just how close the file sizes are of the digital intermediates (which are the masters used at theatres) when compared to their home video counterparts (which use these masters as a basis for the encode), with the digital intermediate typically being around double the size when compared to their standard Blu-ray release (up to 50GB) and the difference being even less so with Ultra HD Blu-rays (which have a maximum capacity of 100GB).
In respect to music, a lot of what I am interested in is not available for purchase at lossless formats, hence why I prefer to buy CDs if available, and in the odd occasion where I am only interested in a song or two (as opposed to a full album), I will typically download them via iTunes.
Dianella store is near me. I always wondered why it was there. It’s not a major centre only a Coles and woolies + a few small retailers. The area is mostly elderly people and there is 2 stores within 5 minutes of it. Seems sensible to close it.
The physical media is dying fast and this saddens me
@Silly_G i fully agree. Im a physical media collector too. Games . Cds. Movies and books
@Dunan
Hardly anyone uses Amazon Australia. It’s really that bad. We all use Amazon US/UK/JP and shop around for the best prices.
JB Hi-Fi is the main physical store competition and their prices honestly are just as high most of the time.
I feel the main reason for this in Australia is the digital game stores. They are slowly taking over.
Also when the digital copy is like $10-$30 cheaper most people will just get that and forgo the cart or disc.
@the8thark
Well we're just 2 people talking about it using it, I use the AU Amazon store, I can't order from the Japanese store as they won't send stuff to me from there and I occasional use the US store for hard to get items.
I can also tell you that I won't touch a digital game store unless I have no other option so we're of two ends of the spectrum here. I do know people use the AU store when deals get posted so that's not everyone using the US store or regional store.
I'm talking in broader terms of software as well across all platforms. The physical usually ends up cheaper than digital except for when it comes to the Switch so there's actually no incentive to buy digitally on Ps4 for example.
JB Hifi and Big W tend to have the cheaper launch prices, especially with certain titles in the first couple of days.
@Dunan
Here are my experiences for comparison.
I order from Amazon Japan from time to time. Everything I want there can be shipped to me. I'm a Queenslander. So I wonder why they will not ship to you. That's strange.
My local JB HiFi are about on par with EB games for new game prices but occassionally they have better prices so always worth shopping around.
Big W, I agree with you there their prices are often better but their selection is a lot smaller. A lot of the new games they just don't stock. I do compare prices as both Big W and EB games are in my local shopping centre.
When I am in town I check Target and KMart too. Though KMart's selection is really bad, almost non existant. Target often has good prices though.
I also am like you and will not touch a digital store unless there is no other way of getting a game. I have to agree the PS4 games are often cheaper physically. Especially a few months after launch. Most of the PS4 games i own I bought for $30 or less on disc.
I guess I should check out the Amazon Australia store for their deals. That's good advice - Thank you.
Though I'd never pay full price there, no point when we can get it locally instead.
I only use Amazon US/UK/JP for games that are released physically overseas but only digitally here.
Thank you and good luck with your future purchases.
@the8thark
I'm not sure why but Amazon Japan wouldn't let me ship the last two games I wanted so I had to go to Amiami and Cdjapan to get my stuff.
I tend to pick up stuff on launch so the prices will always be higher than waiting a few months, half a year for stuff to drop or even a year.
I use ozbargain for a variety of stuff and game deals/launch prices get posted up there. Worth a look every now and again.
K-Mart doesn't stock games here anymore and Target's been clearing out all their games but for awhile Target was really cheap.
That's a bruh moment for us australians
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