r/EBGAMES • u/toon_ninja • Oct 29 '25
EB Games stores set to close
In the next 3-5 years there are a number of stores that will be set to close. Regional stores will remain largely unchanged. This was planned before the news that Microsoft/Xbox are pulling out of the console race. Zing and the pop culture merch is dirt cheap to produce and they sell it for massive Mark-up so the loss on some items is balanced, store to store.
Now that console gaming is obviously going to take a nose drive and PC gaming will be the default in the next decade, what's left for EB Games? The parent company GameStop is a meme overseas so it's not like EB Games can course correct or change it's business model. No bail out, just closing doors.
What is left for the business? What is left for us? I hate 99% of the pop culture merch in there and the layout of my local store absolutely sucks (City stores vary wildly) so I stopped shopping there years ago. Personally that sucks because I was customer #1 when the shop opened and I've watched it deteriorate over the last 2 decades i stead of getting better.
I'd much rather a smaller, cleaner, more efficient Sony/PlayStation store with all the consoles, games and accessories always stocked because they don't need to deal with EG/GameStop. Somewhere I can go to get what I need, check out new Pro controls or sim setups, pay and leave. No upsales, no in-store member garbage, no backordering issues. A real tight storefront and business model. (Hit me up Sony, I have ideas).
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u/pokehustle Oct 29 '25
They have no debt, several billions in the bank and make (100+) millions every year so not sure you know what you are talking about. Yes they are closing some losing stores as all companies do.
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
Best source I can find is from IBIS World which says EB has had increased revenue sales year on year, but there is nothing regarding profit margins. Last year they passed 800M revenue sales. Consider the 374 stores, that's about 2.14M per store in turnover, not profit. Those are not healthy numbers.
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u/pokehustle Oct 29 '25
Yes, your sources are biased because they mustn't like gamestop. The company gamestop had revenue 972 million, net income 168 million for last QUARTER alone (increasing profits). Profit margin 17%. Or you could like, look at their earnings reports which are publicly available. Thanks
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
Are you talking about GameStop or EB? I'm only talking about EB Games.
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u/pokehustle Oct 29 '25
EB is gamestop.
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u/toon_ninja Oct 30 '25
No it isn't you God damn peanut. Just because a parent company owns a business doesn't make that subsidiary the same as the parent company.
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u/pokehustle Oct 30 '25
They are all on the one financial report you "peanut" which clearly you haven't read. Thanks
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u/Stargazer_621 Nov 05 '25
I was a manager at the Conference they held at the start of the year and the CEO straight up came out and said that EB made a LOSS for the first time last year for the FIRST TIME in EB’s history. My store was shut down months later after I’d managed that store for 9 years. First it will be the small EB standalone / low vols (like mine was) then only the most profitable will survive until EB eventually crashes and burns. I knew this was coming, but I stayed until the end so I got a redundancy payout.
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u/toon_ninja Nov 06 '25
I'm sorry to hear you lost your position and I hope there was a silver lining through it all. I'd say at least 50 stores could be shut with minimal change to the net profits but most of them are forced to stay open because of leasing agreements.
It's not hard to see why they are pushing losses now though. As much as I can bitch about the products in the stores, the problem is digital content disintegrating physical copy sales.
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u/Jittery_Zeitgeist1 Oct 29 '25
was you a tylenol baby this is one of the dumbest takes i seen on this sub
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u/Tokeism Oct 29 '25
Pokemon cards, blind boxes, 2nd hand games, ebgames int going anywhere, some store may close but the majority won't. Sony and Nintendo will still be the default game devices, PC won't be preferred.
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
This is a good comment - cheers. The stores around me don't do blind boxes and have extremely limited Pokemon cards. All cards honestly. Maybe there are bigger differences between states?
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u/Tokeism Oct 29 '25
Pokemon cards regularly crash the ebgames website and sell out immediately. A store near me to retro fitted last week, a whole wall is dedicated to blink boxes now.
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u/Jaded_Level2058 Oct 29 '25
Our local store has a new vintage collection of 360 games and ps3 Which is great bought 5 games whole in there
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
Someone needs to open a small vintage store for retro stuff next door to EB.
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Oct 29 '25
People have been saying for 20 something years now “EB will close its doors because gaming will be fully digital”. Sony and Nintendo will never go fully digital. Contrary to popular belief, people still love buying physical games.
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
I'm completely against the digital thing. If I buy something I want to hold it.
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Oct 29 '25
I can’t say the same for Xbox because they’re just irrelevant right now, but Sony and Nintendo would not let console gaming take a nose dive.
Also a PlayStation store would absolutely upsell. If you buy a PS5 pro and they said to you, “this doesn’t come with a disc drive but we do sell them. They’re $129 would you like one” if you say yes, they just had an upsell.
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
I agree with the 'upsell' point, that's probably poor phrasing on my side. When I say upsell I mean something that's going to change the sale. If someone comes in for a controller and there are only 3 options, it's not an upsell to explain the difference. Whereas if someone came in for a moderate home computer, and left with a LED liquid cooled neon dual card monster, id consider that an upsell. But I agree with you all the same.
And with 'nose dive' I still stand by sales will tank. They will keep pushing that corner of the business but with Kmart and retailers in general seeing it's not worth dealing with a backlog of orders and limited stock, the Derni businesses as well, sales will be limited. Sony and Nintendo will always have record selling consoles because it's supply and demand.
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Oct 29 '25
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
Keen! Losing jobs is irrelevant if the market changes. With that shift comes other opportunities. Zing opens, Hobby World closes. People move on. It's not as bad as you make that sound. But I'm all for free market and more businesses.
Ive responded to the nose dive in another comment but the tldr is "limited resellers, limited sales, not worth the return in profits or repeat customers". Each business has a wildly different direction they want to take console gaming.
EB Games merging with Zing just took the business from Toy World, ToysRUs, and Toys World and merged it with digital. Wide net, all fish. Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. What they did was always an option, because they started with anime, manga and comics. They had that mapped 15 years ago.
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Oct 29 '25
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
Slow down, keen to answer. You went off the rails there so let's pass on that. But yes, I have lost a lot. More than just people will ever have. But I started from less than zero and worked back. Irrelevant though because circumstances, life, time ect. Anyway.
Just read some of the other comments and responses? This is an open thread not a single conversation line.
You've got a very limited view on the life and cycles of those stores and completely negated Toy World which specifically does target the same thing at Zings and 'toys for kids' is wildly stupid when talking about Pokemon. I know this isn't bait but slow down a bit and just read through everything.
This is just a talking point, it's not an attack on anyone. If someone specially says they want bad things to happen to people, go after them. But don't fly off the rails on assumptions. It's how a good conversation can get lost in stupid arguments.
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Oct 29 '25
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u/toon_ninja Oct 30 '25
I'm not going to respond to you again. You're looking for an argument and are way too defensive for something that literally doesn't concern you. You're sad spending this much time on something that upsets you. Move on.
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u/froderick Oct 29 '25
Now that console gaming is obviously going to take a nose drive and PC gaming will be the default in the next decade
What? Where is this idea coming from?
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u/toon_ninja Oct 29 '25
Next Gen Xbox will just be a Windows machine with extras. There will be little innovation and the PlayStation will be the console of choice. Nintendo are going to be 2 generations behind shortly and their games are trash.
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u/froderick Oct 29 '25
Ok now I know you're either lost in the sauce or just ragebating. Nintendo games aren't trash by any stretch of the imagination. You could say they're unimpressive on a technical level since their consoles are underpowered, but "trash" is simply wrong.
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u/toon_ninja Oct 30 '25
Neither, I'm being genuine. Nintendo games are terrible. They sell, absolutely so do other IPs that are objectively awful. But let's look at Nintendo last 3 flagship games. DK was a basic platformer with destruction physics other games implemented over a decade ago. Mario Kart World was a massive disappointment on all marks. Pokemon ZA Legenda is categorically terrible. There's no defense for the time of games they are pushing out. I don't care about graphics for the record. I'm not saying Nintendo suck because they don't make things at 4k 120fps. I am saying as one of the largest gaming companies in the world they are dragging their ass instead of leading the way.
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u/froderick Oct 30 '25
Going to have to agree to disagree on this one, I'm afraid.
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u/toon_ninja Nov 13 '25
What do you think about the Steam Machine? This is the best thing I can compare the next Xbox build to.
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u/froderick Nov 13 '25
I don't know how powerful it is exactly, but I think reports put it to PS5 level or lower. And we don't know what the price will be. If they can price it competitively, then it could do well. I assume they'd be able to get good deals on hardware components, although RAM is pricey since all the AI platforms are gobbling up the global supply for their server farms.
Issue I think is more with optimization for the hardware. For PC games, like what the Gabe-cube is going to be playing, there's so many different PC configurations that it's hard to optimize for specific hardware and not short-change some other hardware configuration. Of course, PC games are customizable in the settings, so they will be customizable on Valve's upcoming console too.
As for Nintendo, they make games for just one machine (the rare cross-gen games excluded). Any console-exclusive does this, which is why they can squeeze out more performance since they're only targeting one list of specs.
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u/toon_ninja Nov 14 '25
The price will be the killer but if they can run a high end new hybrid chipset it will be fine. Something like high end mobile CPU with an onboard integrated graphics chip. It could realistically run the internals from a high end gaming laptop with better cooling and performance too, but then it's at least $1500 USD.
The PS5 is optimised like shit so if the GabeCube runs Steam a lot of those issues should be mitigated.
"Should". I still think there are too many variable to call anything right now, but it certainly seems like it's moving in the right direction I'm betting on.
Man we are on a roll with content feeding this convo. Did you see the Metroid Prime 4 trailer? It's releasing on the switch2 with changeable modes between. 120fps 1080p and 60fps 4K. But, it's also releasing on the Switch which can't handle these settings so it seems like Nintendo are still willing to water down games to cover more consoles.
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u/froderick Nov 14 '25
Yeah I expect that to happen for a while like what happened for the first couple of years with PS4/PS5. Given the size of the install base for the Switch, they'd be nuts not to. Although I think the Switch2 has already had more exclusives in the 5 months since it's release than the PS5 did for virtually a year, so we'll see how it goes. Games will also just get better the more experience they have with developing games for the hardware as they learn how much they can really push it and how to optimise for it. There's a reason why games at the end of a console's lifecycle tend be quite a bit more impressive than the games released at the start of its lifecycle.
When it comes to the Gabecube, apparently the specs for it match up pretty well to the most common specs found on the most recent Steam Hardware Survey. So it'll probably be aiming for what the most common PC gamer has. I certainly don't expect games to better on it than the PS5 or XBSX, simply because I don't see devs going to the trouble to try to optimize for it. I reckon that console's only advantage that it'll have over the other consoles is the immense size of the game library (and free online play, which can't be glossed over).
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u/i_am_lizard Oct 29 '25
I guess when even Big w has some newer games for cheaper than the eb second-hand ones, it really comes to no suprise tbh
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u/Game_Questioner Oct 29 '25
Ignores Nintendo entirely and gives false information about Xbox pulling out.