EB Games Australia

Electronics Boutique Australia Pty Ltd
EB Games Australia
Public company
Industry Electronics Stores
Founded 27 February 1997[1]
Headquarters 25 Backhouse Place, Trade Coast Central, Eagle Farm, Queensland, Australia
Key people
 Steve Wilson
(Managing Director)
Products Video Games, Consoles and Accessories
Number of employees
 5000+
Parent GameStop
Divisions Zing Pop Culture Australia
Website

EB Games Australia

EB Games New Zealand

EB Games Australia (originally Electronics Boutique) is an Australian video game and entertainment software retailer. EB Games mainly sells video games, consoles, and accessories for Nintendo, PC, PlayStation and Xbox systems. The company operates over 450 EB Games stores as well as over 100 Zing Pop Culture stores in Australia. The company runs a further 40 EB Games stores in New Zealand. EB Games Australia is headquartered in Eagle Farm, Queensland (a suburb of Brisbane) and is a subsidiary of GameStop.

History

The first Australian store was opened on 5 July 1997 in Westfield Shoppingtown Miranda, New South Wales, with stores opening near-concurrently at Westfield Group Tuggerah, New South Wales and in the Old Charlestown Square complex.

In 2003, Electronics Boutique officially started trading as EB Games to differentiate themselves from the larger traditional multi-department electronics stores where video games had been relegated to one department within the home entertainment section.

EB World

EB World is a loyalty program founded in 2011. The program offers five reward levels. Level one, two, three and four can be earned by collecting points called "carrots" when shopping at EB Games and Zing Pop Culture stores. [2] The level five tier is by invitation only with memberships being reviewed annually. [3][4] The program allows receipt free shopping, longer preorder holds and other additional benefits through continued purchases.[5] As of 2017 the program had over 5 million members. [6]

Pre-owned products

EB Games' pre-owned section covers consoles and games as well as accessories and mobile phones. The trade-in does not include peripheral accessories (aesthetic accessories that are not required for gameplay, including Sports Kits, Charging Stands and AV / Composite / HDMI cables). EB Games also trades in certain Apple iPod (Classic, Touch and Nano), iPhone and iPad models as well as select Android Devices.

In all Australian states and territories, the value of traded games, consoles and accepted accessories can be used as in-store credit towards all items in stock as well as towards paying off a Lay-by or Pre-order on an upcoming release title. Only in some states can the traded value be exchanged for cash. In these instances, items traded for cash are retained by the store for a grace period to verify that the traded items were not obtained by the customer through illegal means. Traded games are able to be resold in-store upon being traded in, provided they are physically in re-sellable condition. If the traded items are deemed defective by the tradee, a Disc Repair cost can be incurred to the trader, being deducted from the trade value. These items are then processed at the corporate warehouse. All consoles are returned to the warehouse before being approved for re-sale regardless of physical condition upon being traded.

As of 1 September 2008, EB Games no longer takes trades on Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube or original PlayStation games, however, the trade of a Nintendo Gamecube controller is still accepted due to its compatibility with popular Nintendo Wii titles (Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and Rugby League Live). As of 1 December 2010, EB Games no longer takes trades on Xbox original consoles, games or accessories. As of 1 December 2012, EB Games no longer takes trades on PlayStation 2 Games, but they still take trades on PlayStation 2 consoles.

EB Games Expo

In 2011, EB Games launched the EB Games Expo held on the Gold Coast. The Expo allows attendees to play and experience upcoming games. It also hosts a variety of local and international developer and publisher teams, who deliver presentations to attendees showcasing their upcoming releases.[7][8]

Starlight Children's Foundation

Since 2007, EB Games Australia has maintained a charity partnership with the Starlight Children's Foundation. Every year, EB Games sponsors a "Starlight Week" in April-May with fund-raising endeavours across the chain and at a corporate level. In 2018, Starlight Week raised over $835,000 for the Foundation.

Controversial Incidents

In May 2015, four former EB Games employees accused an EB Games district manager of workplace bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, racial hatred, intimidation, and unpaid worked hours. The incidents occurred in the Figtree and Dapto stores. The former employees filed complaints with WorkCover New South Wales and the Australian Human Rights Commission.[9][10][11]

Zing Pop Culture stores

Zing Pop Culture Australia a division of EB Games Australia launched in May 2014 and currently operates over 100 stores.[12] In addition, the Zing brand has prominent floor space in many EB games stores, which now have much larger merchandising sections than in previous years. This is to encourage customers to purchase extra game or pop culture merchandise with their games.

References

  1. ↑ "National Names Index: Index of corporate and business names: Electronics Boutique Australia PTY LTD". ASIC: Australian Securities & Investments Commission. 30 January 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  2. ↑ "What Is EB World, And Why Are They Giving Me Carrots?". Kotaku. 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  3. ↑ "EB GAMES IS SURPRISING GAMERS WITH LEVEL 5 EB WORLD MEMBERSHIPS". Press Start. 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  4. ↑ "LEVEL 5 EB WORLD MEMBERS WILL ONLY BE PICKED ONCE A YEAR". Press Start. 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "What is EB World?". EBGames AU. 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "EB Games to give away 100,000 limited edition poster in celebration of 5-million EB World Members". MCV. 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "EB Games Expo". EB Expo AU. 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "EB Games Expo 2015 – Sydney Olympic Park". Sydney.com Destination NSW. 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Mardon, Cydonee (19 May 2015). "Illawarra store manager's behaviour 'absolutely appalling'". Illawarra Mercury. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  10. ↑ Hollingworth, David (20 July 2015). "An inside look at EB Games work practices". PC Authority. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  11. ↑ Serrels, Mark (20 July 2015). "Inside EB Games: When The Dream Job Becomes A Nightmare". Kotaku AU. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  12. ↑ "Zing Stores". Zing Website. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
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