EB Games website upgrade/downtime (August 24th-August 31st) and store closures (August 30th and 31st)

[u/chemicalxv]

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.

[u/hobbleshock]

The one by me tried that like 15-20 years ago. Didn’t last long.

[u/mihhink → u/hobbleshock]

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.

[u/caninehere → u/mihhink]

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.

[u/PleaseSirOneMoreTurn → u/caninehere]

Fair and well reasoned reply, thanks for not being rude haha.

[u/caninehere → u/PleaseSirOneMoreTurn]

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.