GameStop Canada bought by new company - to "re-become" EB Games

Hydraglass

The co-owner of McFarlane toys and several other toy companies has purchased GameStop Canada from the struggling US Parent company:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/gamestop-canada-bought-by-quebec-toy-maker-to-be-rebranded-eb-games/

I hope this move will secure the new “EB Games” version of GameStop for at least the near future, similar to how ToysRUS was saved for Canada while the original US version is long gone.

ElQuintron

I don’t buy a lot of console games at brick and mortal places but when I do, I’d rather buy her than Walmart of Best Buy,

Hydraglass

ElQuintron I’ve always liked their used games selection - I have bought at least half a dozen used Switch and PS5 games there in the last couple years for an extremely good bargain price (the switch games that were $69.99 on the rack, and $39.99 digital on the nintendo store were like $9.99 or $14.99 used, and the PS5 games were less than half of their $79.99 retail). I hope the new ownership and management keep their used games business in operation as it is very handy. Also bought my PS5 controller charging base and 2 extra controllers there. They are close by, the staff are way better than big box stores - they are generally techie gamers themselves.

urbanriot

Hydraglass

GameStop Canada

GameStop Canada / EBGames has always been a terrible company to deal with, bad deals for your used games which they’ll turn around and sell at ridiculous prices.

I always went to the US’ GameStop for better deals, they’d regularly have buy 2 get 1 free sales, or buy a console and get a free game or two, or buy a console and get 25% on all games. That and if you had a membership card they’d email you all the time about deals which Canada never had.

I’m surprised they made it this long. One of our local GameStop locations shut down a few years back because they never had any customers because their prices were terrible. Alternative console gaming stores exist in our city that have more foot traffic than GameStop / EB Games ever had because they don’t try to scam you.

Hydraglass

urbanriot I’m surprised they made it this long. One of our local GameStop locations shut down a few years back because they never had any customers because their prices were terrible. Alternative console gaming stores exist in our city that have more foot traffic than GameStop / EB Games ever had because they don’t try to scam you.

I’ve always found their prices to be as good or better than WalMart or BB for regular rack rate games, I’m not driving 2 hours to the US to pay $10 to cross a bridge, 40% exchange and get a 25% tariff and 13% HST bill on the way home - that will just cost more than its worth. The only indy store we have in town closed because they kept getting robbed (I’m pretty sure by an ex employee based on the chatter I heard). I always found their used game prices to always beat E-Bay when you include shipping too.

urbanriot

Hydraglass

I’ve always found their prices to be as good or better than WalMart or BB for regular rack rate games, I’m not driving 2 hours to the US to pay $10 to cross a bridge, 40% exchange and get a 25% tariff and 13% HST bill on the way home

That’s an obscene exaggeration from reality considering I don’t do that either, but that also wasn’t my point.

Also I’m not sure when the last time you were in GameStop Canada but the prices for used games are atrocious, it’s like $40+ for random games. If you want to buy 3 used games you’re paying $120. Edit: I was wrong, it’s worse than that, I just called to ask and the games are more like $68 a game.

The last time I was at GameStop (US) I purchased for Switch Xenoblade Chronicles II, MegaMan 11, and Sea of Stars for $55 after exchange and then a few days later Xenoblade Chronicles X, Super Mario RPG, and Metroid Prime Remastered for $68 after exchange including New York State sales tax of 4% and factoring in buy 2 get 1 free. Claimed them quoting USD sans taxes both times and both times they let me pass, no duties, no taxes.

Those six games after exchange was $123.

If I bought those at GameStop Canada it would be, at best with taxes in $300.

Seriously, the prices are insane compared to USA, Animal Crossing used is $68.99?! Super Mario Odyssey is $68.99 used. I bought that in the US for $20 US at GameStop without the case.

Even if you had to pay taxes and tariffs coming over the river it’s still cheaper than GameStop Canada which was my point. When was the last time you saw a “buy 2 get one free” deal in Canada?

Hydraglass

urbanriot When was the last time you saw a “buy 2 get one free” deal in Canada?

In November - they had a buy two get one on black friday. Those online listed prices are not the prices they charge in store for used games - maybe their online selection is expensive because of the extra handling etc – but last August I paid $29.99 for Horizon Forbidden West for PS5 and I paid $19.99 for Splatoon3 for Switch. Its the art of going in the store and looking at what they have on the shelves and often the used games are deeply discounted with the green tags on them. I only paid $9.99 for Luigis Mansion 3 for Switch early in 2024. They sometimes have a $9.99 or $19.99 bin of used games right near the checkout.

Artwebb1986

urbanriot

Mario Odyssey is $47 USD preowned at Gamestop USA.
Animal Crossing is $52 USD preowned. So better to buy it in Canada.

urbanriot

Artwebb1986

Mario Odyssey is $47 USD preowned at Gamestop USA.

No idea where you got those prices from but those are certainly not the prices in store.

I paid $26 for Mario Odyssey not too long ago, I purchased it at the same time for Breath of the Wild for $32.

Definitely better to buy it in the US.

I’ll take pictures the next time I’m there. Most games over a couple years old are $32 or less.

And again, I have to remind you, “buy 2 get 1 free” which we don’t seem to have in Canada.

urbanriot

Hydraglass

Those online listed prices are not the prices they charge in store for used games

That makes sense considering the numbers Artwebb posted which are wildly inaccurate. I’ll head to the EBGames we have in the Pen Centre here and then compare with what I see at the location I go to in Niagara Falls, NY (near Wegmans) along with the location almost around the corner. There’s literally 3 different GameStop stores within 10 minutes of each other in an area near the fashion outlets and I make the circuit there when I’m looking for something, 4 in the whole city vs. 1 here in Canada.

The last time I was at the Pen Centre location and saw a used version of Metroid Prime around Christmas it really was $68 though. Anything I was even remotely interested in was $52 - $68 and I thought they were out of their minds since the prices were so close to new games.

Artwebb1986

urbanriot the website obviously. The same place that shows the $68 cad price you said they cost here.

$68 isn’t really that bad at all when they give you $50 trade in for them.

Hydraglass

urbanriot The last time I was at the Pen Centre location and saw a used version of Metroid Prime around Christmas it really was $68 though. Anything I was even remotely interested in was $52 - $68 and I thought they were out of their minds since the prices were so close to new games.

It mostly just depends on what is being traded and how the local manager is running the store when it comes to the used inventory as it isn’t strictly priced - it’ll depend more on how many they have of something and what the demand is and how long it has been sitting on the shelf - if you were in near the holidays all the cheap stuff might have been picked through - that’s buyers season not sell/trade season – where January/February will be heavy on trade-ins as folks get finished up with games they got over the holidays and are ready to move on to something new. Don’t go in looking for a specific title - go in thinking “hey what can I find for a cheap used game for the PS5/Switch/Xbox/etc”.

Donoreo

Summary: EB Games the brand name is coming back. Website prices for used games in Canada and the US are not accurate, it is best to go into the shop in person.

Sound right?

MichelR

ElQuintron Not sure there’s much point buying the physical media these days. Most of the games are so big, the physical media is basically just an installer/proof-of-purchase and the game needs to be downloaded anyway.

Donoreo

MichelR Not sure there’s much point buying the physical media these days. Most of the games are so big, the physical media is basically just an installer/proof-of-purchase and the game needs to be downloaded anyway.

You just contradicted yourself.

Artwebb1986

Donoreo

The website is pretty damn accurate. $68 for a game they give $50 trade in for isn’t crazy. They aren’t going to sell the game for $20 instore when they offer a $50 trade in.

Thane_Bitter

urbanriot Recall the same thing when looking for a game for a relative, used but almost new price. They also would not deal with (at the time, they might have changed since) older console games which oddly are in higher demand now then they used to be.

IMHO would rather have a game on disc, cartridge or other media than something that only exists in the cloud that has to be accessed via the Internet and constantly calls home to endure the rights or licence for that cloud platform have not been terminated and thus deleting or breaking the game. Same for music and books, if I can have it in hand it’s OK even if it is just a file but this perpetual game of ever changing cloudy EULAs and terms of service is just too much to deal with.

Hydraglass

Thane_Bitter IMHO would rather have a game on disc, cartridge or other media than something that only exists in the cloud that has to be accessed via the Internet and constantly calls home to endure the rights or licence for that cloud platform have not been terminated and thus deleting or breaking the game. Same for music and books, if I can have it in hand it’s OK even if it is just a file but this perpetual game of ever changing cloudy EULAs and terms of service is just too much to deal with.

My complaint - and this has been the case since the PS3 and Xbox 360 and Wii – is every damn game requiring gigabyes of updates when you run it the first time - not even more game content or installers or anything, but just patches and “bug fixed” versions of the game. I can’t remember ever buying a game on disc in the last 15 (probably closer to 17 or 18) years that the first time you go to run it hasn’t said “please wait, downloading updates!” - sometimes they are reasonable - 50 or 100 megs – but I think it was something like Shadow of the Tomb Raider had like 30GB of updates…. ridiculous.

Thane_Bitter

Hydraglass

Game consortium of Software and Hardware makers “Oh, you want to play a game?”

Machine: Downloading………

User: (actively experiencing aging, runs out of time or loses interest long before the update is complete).

I swear windows works the same way, it doesn’t matter what your active hours are set, as soon as you start up for the day it wants to start grabbing updates and downloading them. At least with SSD’s the lag and kick in the nuts to performance isn’t so bad.

Artwebb1986

Thane_Bitter I’ve fixed that windows update issue. I never turn my computer off. Then postpone for weeks when there actually is an update.