EB Games Australia

Electronics Boutique Australia Pty Ltd

Trading name	EB Games Australia
Type	Public company
Industry	Electronics Stores
Founded	27 February 1997^[1]
Headquarters	25 Backhouse Place, Trade Coast Central, Eagle Farm, Queensland, AUS
Key people	Steve Wilson (Managing Director),
Products	Video Games, Consoles and Accessories
Number of employees	5000+
Parent	GameStop
Website	EB Games Australia EB Games New Zealand

EB Games Australia (originally Electronics Boutique) is an Australian video game and entertainment software retailer. Headquartered in Eagle Farm, Queensland (a suburb of Brisbane). The company operates over 380^[2] stores across Australia's six states and territories and 30^[3] more stores in New Zealand. EB Games Australia is part of GameStop. EB Games sells video games, consoles, and accessories for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, PC, Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS. Customers can also purchase games online from the EB games website.

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.

The 100 and 1100 series stores all had the same layouts and finishes respective to store sizes. The 200 series stores have a similar finish on fixtures and counters but is a slightly darker blue. These stores all carried the EB Games logo on the front counters.

In 2003, Electronics Boutique officially started trading as EB Games to stop confusion with the idea they were an electronics store.

EB World

In October, 2011, EB Games announced their EB World program after having their Bunny mascot silhouette on the official website alluring to something new.

The introduction of EB World does not interfere with a customer's statutory rights regarding the return or replacement of defective product should they decline the offer to join EB World.

Pre-owned

EB Games' pre-owned section covers consoles and games as well as accessories. 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). Whilst current generation consoles and games are still carried in every store, only a few stores referred to as "Vision Stores" still carry the older generation consoles and games (PlayStation Portable). EB Games also trades in certain Apple iPod (Classic, Touch and Nano), iPhone and iPad models.

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 (the tradee) for a grace period to verify that the traded items were not obtained by the customer (the trader) 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 (to re-format any HDD devices and ensure power cables / transformers are safe for use in Australia) 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 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, however, 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. This expo was used to highlight upcoming games as well to promote various domestic and international video game developers and producers. A second EB Games Expo was held in October 2012 in Sydney where the expo will remain until at least 2014.

References