EB Games Australia

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 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]

Since the launch of EB World, EB Games has released a number of limited edition EB World membership cards as gifts or to commemorate certain events. EB World cards have been released for: the inaugural year of EB World,[7] EB Expo 2012 and 2013, EB Games Sydney CBD store opening, PlayStation 4 & Xbox One console launches, Star Wars Day,[8] Red Dead Redemption 2,[9] World of Warcraft[10] and in 2012 as Christmas presents for Level 4 customers.

In December 2019 the EB World membership exceeded 6 million members.

EB Games pre-owned/trade-in program covers consoles, games, controllers, toys-to-life figures, iPods, iPads, iPhone and select Samsung mobile devices. The pre-owned/trade-in program generally doesn't include peripheral accessories not required for gameplay (sports kits, charging stands or AV/HDMI cables). However there are exceptions with a select range of pre-owned Nintendo Switch peripheral accessories being available and accepted for trade-in.[11][12][13]

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 un-sellable, a defective repair cost can be incurred to the trader, being deducted from the trade value. A game can be deemed defective if scratched, missing the original case, cover display insert, or correct Australian Classification Board rating. These items are then returned to the store support centre warehouse and processed to a re-sellable condition. All consoles are returned to the warehouse before being approved for re-sale regardless of physical condition upon being traded.[13]

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.[13]

EB Games accepts the following consoles/games for trade in:[13][14]

	Consoles	Games/Accessories
Nintendo DS
Nintendo 2DS/3DS
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii U
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Classic Mini: NES
Nintendo Classic Mini: SNES
PlayStation Classic
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4/PSVR
PlayStation Vita
Xbox 360
Xbox One

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.[15][16]

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.

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.[17][18][19]

Zing Pop Culture Australia a division of EB Games Australia launched in May 2014 and currently operates over 80 stores.[20] 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.

• Official website