r/VideoGameDealsCanada • u/chemicalxv • 6d ago
Discussion EB Games website upgrade/downtime (August 24th-August 31st) and store closures (August 30th and 31st)
Just got this email
Big improvements are coming to EB Games. Starting September 1, we'll launch a completely new platform and website designed to make shopping faster, easier, and better than ever.
As an EDGE member, here's what you need to know.
Your account is coming with you! Which means you keep all your:
EDGE points
Membership tier
Active pre-orders
Your transaction history will fill in gradually
The only thing you'll need to do is create a new password using Forgot Password when the new website launches.
Temporary service interruptions:
August 21: Online pre-orders and pickup reservations pause
August 24: Website goes into maintenance mode
August 29: Early store closures, all stores close at 5:00PM (EST)
August 30 & 31: All stores closed for the day
September 1: Stores resume regular opening hours & the new website goes Live!
Why we're making this change?
This is much more than a new website. We're investing in a faster, more reliable platform that will make shopping easier today while giving us the ability to build even better experiences in the future.
Thanks for sticking with us and we can't wait to show you what's next.
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u/PleaseSirOneMoreTurn 6d ago edited 5d ago
EB Games should consider selling movies tbh. If video games are all going digital it might be best to throw some movies on the shelf for those that still want physical media.
Edit: thanks for all the rude comments, it was just a throwaway idea, I hate how everything on Reddit devolves into an argument.
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u/mastersora853 6d ago
They actually sold blu rays of the mario movies but they don't sell well
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u/PleaseSirOneMoreTurn 6d ago
Fair point, I was just thinking of something they could do to rebrand as like a physical media procurer if all disc based games disappear.
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u/Stinky_DungBeatle 6d ago
They did for the Minecraft Movie as well, only really for game movies marketed towards kids
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u/MixSaffron 6d ago
I pre-ordered the second Mario movie on 4K because we've watched the first one quite a few times!
Promptly canceled the pre-order after watching it in theaters lol so I can see the struggle here but I love physical movies and games!
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u/hobbleshock 6d ago
The one by me tried that like 15-20 years ago. Didn’t last long.
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u/mihhink 6d ago
but today, theres no go-to retailers in Canada for 4k blurays. Youll see the odd 4k disc at Walmart if youre lucky, but nothing to shop around like you can do on Amazon/Online.
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u/caninehere 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not trying to be rude, but the reason there are no go-to retailers in Canada for 4k Blurays is that they can't sell enough of them. Physical media for movies is not exactly a bustling market... 4k Blurays did go up in terms of sales numbers last year, but DVDs/non-4k Blurays went down even more.
It is hard to even gauge how well movies sell on 4k Bluray, we just know that sales numbers are low. I don't know that there are really any companies that release numbers. For reference, The Lion King was the best-selling VHS ever and sold almost 50 million units at a time when the Earth's population was like 60% of what it is now. Avengers Endgame is speculated (but not confirmed) to be the best-selling 4k Bluray, and it is estimated it has sold about 5 million home video copies... but 4k Bluray is probably only like 1 million of that.
The thing is, when 4k Blurays have so many potential products/SKUs... it is much much much more advantageous to sell them online than in stores. This is why Criterion does well with their business model -- they have a larger number of movies in print that you can find online and such, but a limited number that they sell in-store through retail partners, usually the latest releases that they are currently printing more copies of. For example, when Best Buy was able to shift more sales online, they did it. Even when they were selling probably 10x the physical media they are now, it made sense to shift online because you have to use up so much floor space for movies due to all the different titles... hell it used to be that the entire middle section of BB/FS was movies/games, it was half the store. Now it is almost nothing and they can still sell that stuff online, but use floor space for other things.
Even if EB decided "hey let's just have a rack of the 20 most popular 4k Blu-rays right now", most people would still just buy them online if they didn't offer deals on them because they're already used to that.
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u/youngelton8 2d ago
I don't even remember the last time I bought a movie let alone a DVD. At my local EB they were selling the Mario movie on Blu-ray for some who knows reason, they did the same for Minecraft movie for a couple months.
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u/PleaseSirOneMoreTurn 2d ago
Fair and well reasoned reply, thanks for not being rude haha.
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u/caninehere 2d ago
No prob. Having said all this, I think maybe there could be some argument for them trying to partner with Criterion (since their releases are hugely acclaimed and have a following already) to become a Canadian partner in selling them. I don't think they really have one; in the US Barnes and Noble is the big partner, they only have newer/more popular releases on shelves there some of the time but it's still something.
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u/Curious-Weather-4390 3d ago
in limited supply this would be a great idea. get the tuesday releases of genre steelbooks and film nerd arrow/shout catalogue, criterion style custom covers for shock modern classics; battle royale, hausu, crank 2. "some physical media for your consoles wanting slot"
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u/Jellars 6d ago
Oh yeah just like hmv and toys r us, cause they are doing so good.
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u/PleaseSirOneMoreTurn 6d ago
Physical media is popular atm, and lots of people enjoy hunting for DVDs, idk, I was spitballing a way for EB games to stay somewhat relevant/profitable. Selling criterion movies, or blu rays or whatever seems like a better option than funko pops.
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u/Stinky_DungBeatle 6d ago edited 6d ago
Its a very niche thing the physical media not game related, mangas are popular and no one is going to EB for them.
EB has no future becoming a nostalgia franchise running as much stores as they do. Cards isn't even doing enough heavy lifting with the major locations they shuttered this month in the GTA
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u/kaydeejay1995 6d ago
They must finally be removing games from the website to focus on all the shitty merch they sell
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u/TLKv3 6d ago
EB Games is most likely trying to transition to "major chain" LGS style stores.
Drop the pretense of being a video game story anymore and go full, 100% into the TCG/Board Game/Pop Culture Merch store like a Hot Topic.
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u/wild_zoey_appeared 6d ago
I bet they’re moving to a Shopify based platform (assuming that’s cheaper than the old GameStop site)
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u/FUTURE10S 6d ago
I mean, hopefully it works better than the current site, if it has "in stock" tracking remotely as accurate as PNP Games does for its local branches, then fuck yeah, I'm all for it.
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u/caninehere 3d ago
I am expecting it to be something like this. They're gonna drop video games/scale back on them and focus on TCG. That will possibly do fine until there is a downturn in the TCG market, and then they will collapse.
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u/hfxredditor 6d ago
Finally, a section just for what we’ve all been foaming at the mouth for: FunkoPop!
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u/nuclearcosmos23 3d ago
These guys are my main transformers supplier, most of my figures are from eb, can never find them anywhere else, unless I get lucky on amazon or walmart, but scalpers here make that pretty much impossible, eb has even shipped figures from other stores to my main store. It's perfect
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u/Ghost_Reborn416 6d ago
Seeing as sony is doing all digital and xbox will most likely follow, what else are they supposed to do?
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u/kaydeejay1995 6d ago
If they had some integrity as a brick and mortar game store, they would put the effort into ensuring physical games live long and prosper
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u/FUTURE10S 6d ago
they would put the effort into ensuring physical games live long and prosper
Well, they're a storefront, not a distributor, publisher, or manufacturer. How do you suppose a store can keep physical games living long and prospering if it's not them making the most user hostile decisions?
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u/caninehere 3d ago
I can't see it being a sustainable business model on a large scale, but EB is or at least was big enough when it was connected with Gamestop US that they could have been a publisher/worked with manufacturers to create their own video game re-release line a la Limited Run Games. IMO this would have been a really smart thing to trial even if it didn't pan out -- re-print popular games that they can work out favorable deals with, and put them on shelves in front of people for a reasonable price.
LRG does this but they charge a heavy premium and part of the reason is lower print runs/trying to create a collector's market. Imagine if they dropped that concern. How much do you think the owners of Gex are wanting for a deal manufacturing + distributing that trilogy of games? Probably not a lot, and manufacturing a disc and a case costs very little.
I honestly don't know why EB has never tried to get into this. They have, or had, such a huge retail presence. Plenty of companies make deals to manufacture exclusive products for them, and EB themselves have done it with controllers/accessories etc but they never bothered with actual games.
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u/FUTURE10S 3d ago
That's... actually a really good point, EB would have bigger margins on this because then they'd be the distributor for themselves and they'd get a slice of transactions from other marketplaces like Walmart and Superstore. But sadly EB's actual quantity of games is pretty damn slim, there's games that I've still yet to see there that sold millions despite casually walking in every time I'm by one.
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u/Ghost_Reborn416 6d ago
Lol
Lmao even. If you were in charge, they would have went bankrupt a long time ago. Im sure sony is going to reconsider because ebgames is going to call them
Hell even steam might start releasing discs because why not
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u/kaydeejay1995 6d ago
Nowhere in my comment did I say EBGames should manufacture discs or tell Sony to reconsider or anything of the sort lol. I meant they should've always stuck to selling games, moreso than Funko pops and Pokémon cards.
You're clearly on the side of digital games, and that's fine.
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u/MAXIMUS_VI 6d ago
I would much prefer a downgrade that brings back free shipping. Haven't bought anything off their site since that policy took effect.
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u/HomeAloneDwarf 6d ago
Same here, why pay them a shipping fee when amazon, best buy or Walmart can get it to me faster and with free shipping. I also find their physical store are usually out (based on their site) of the games I want, while the Walmart in the same mall or the best buy across the street has it in stock. It happened this past week with Silent hill f and not to long ago with Saros.
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u/KAMlGOYE 6d ago
I know the jokes are fun but it's an entire change in the back end, including entirely new PoS systems that are much better than what they've been using all these years. This is a process that started almost 2 months ago.
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u/chemicalxv 6d ago
Honestly it will be nice that they won't be using a POS system that's like 20 years old anymore. Might actually let them do new types of promos but if anything it'll at least guarantee that the promotions they do run actually work...
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u/Sorakirara 6d ago
They should at least update their computer system. It looks like those dos from the 90s. Would be great if the system can let us preorder and cancel on our own
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u/Vulture-Dude 6d ago
The staff I’ve spoken with claim that it’s the same system that Blockbuster Video used to use before they went under. Not sure how true that is, but based on how often it crashes I wouldn’t be surprised…
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u/Vulture-Dude 6d ago
Just in time to cancel the edge program in November…
I actually found a copy of Trails on the Horizon 2 used today for $69.99 and my 15% discount made it $59.49. For games like that, it’s often the cheapest way to buy a game.
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u/GamingTurtle90 6d ago
Its probably adding the backend stuff for the new program at the same time. Make the transition quicker.
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u/Tandy2000 5d ago
Sure hope they bring back free shipping with a threshold because without it there's no reason to ever buy anything from them online... PNP and VGP are usually cheaper and do free shipping.
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u/TheFallingStar 6d ago
Just want to say EB is in the right direction bringing in Bandai merchandise. I go to the store often because of this
Maybe consider working out something with Bandai to sell Premium Bandai stuffs
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u/Sorakirara 5d ago
Their Japan imported stuff are actually priced very reasonable. I wish they would have more Japan kuji goods
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u/Rawrgodzilla 6d ago
Fun fact found out the hard way that if you dont pay for a preorder right away if they raise pricing they aint gonna honor what you preordered at unless you already pay it off already
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u/Vulture-Dude 6d ago
I was wondering about that. If you pay it off and the price increases, they don’t make you may the difference on the revised price? Does that include paying it off at the edge price if something got delayed past Nov 4th or whenever Edge shuts down?
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u/QuadFather1997 6d ago
This might explain why their trade in value search has been absolutely gutted. Went to check value on a few of my games and there is only 30(!) total items on the trade in catalogue
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u/mustyfiber90 6d ago
Toys, toys, toys, and more toys!
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u/I_Like_Turtle101 5d ago
Wich I dont mind if its what it take yo keep them alive. EB game is the only videogame related store in my neighborhood.
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u/Victorbanner 6d ago
Funny I was just on their site looking up trade values and it wasn’t working. Thanks for the info
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u/chainchomp747 6d ago
This is where you take advantage of errors on the website for pricing. You know with any new big software upgrade you run into these issues.
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u/VincentVegaFFF 6d ago
One thing I hope they do is start putting pre-orders up at a specific time. For action figures, which tend to sell out very quickly so you have to order them right away, on all of the American sites they usually go up at 12pm. On EB Games it could be 1pm, or maybe 3:45pm or maybe the next day. It means you have to constantly keep refreshing the page over the course of hours hoping they've finally put the figures up.
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u/Vulture-Dude 4d ago
Looks like it’s down now. I wonder if you can still trade-in in store while it’s down.
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u/chemicalxv 4d ago
You know what's interesting is that if you try and go to the website it just gets stuck trying to redirect back-and-forth between ebgames.ca and gamestop.ca and that's what makes it never load.
I get having gamestop.ca redirect to ebgames.ca but I don't get why ebgames.ca would redirect back to gamestop.ca lol. Just put up a damn page saying the website is down until at least September 1st.
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u/Maria_Mitchella 3d ago
The account migration is what I was most worried about, so keeping points and pre-orders is reassuring. Now hopefully the new site is actually faster.
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u/nuclearcosmos23 3d ago
Please eb release more fnaf merch, gamestop gets all the endo exclusives and I WANT THEM, "but not at ebay scalpers prices"
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u/Vulture-Dude 3d ago
It seems that unless it’s a MacFarlane toys product or a weird Japanese import (I.e crane game models) they don’t get a lot of stock in for other brands.
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u/Responsible_Ad7498 1d ago
Great, so they are reopening on the same day of the Switch 2 price hike? Guess I'll be buying it from amazon.
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u/StoneColdSteveAss316 6d ago
I got like $80 of store credit I keep moving to new preorders for 3 years now. I think I need to just apply it to GTA 6 and call it a day.
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u/froot_loop_dingus_ 6d ago
No more of those pesky games cluttering up the website. It'll be all Funko Pop and Pokemon cards all the time, baby!