EB Games to be Gamestop

After Approval, Things Change

from Stardock Forums
Gamestop has announced that there will indeed be some overlapping to their upcoming merger with Electronics Boutique which was announced back in April. GameStop Corp. confirmed yesterday that they will close Electronics Boutique's greater Philadelphia distribution center, causing 576 full-time pink slips and 159 seasonal/temporary pink slips.

The closures will shutdown the former Electronics Boutique corporate headquarters in West Chester, Pa., and a distribution site in Coatesville, Pa. and will start by the middle of next summer. Employees do have the chance of getting relocated to GameStop's headquarters in suburban Dallas. Along with the unexpected layoffs came another unexpected announcement, all EB Games and Electronics Boutique stores will have their names changed to GameStop in the future.

How many more hidden changes do you think there will be?

Source: Yahoo Biz Journals
1,795 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Very interesting... This is not what I heard from a friend working in an EB store... Even the EB employees have no idea about all the upcoming changes, it seems.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
What I'm afraid of is them closing down the EB brand entirely over time, leaving only GameStop stores. I don't know about other GameStops around the nation, but the few I've been in have a PC game section so small if you blink you'll miss it.

GameStop becoming THE specialty retailer for video games will either cripple the PC market, or will give a HUGE boost to online retailers and digital distribution.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I think the days of EB Games are numbered, though most of the ones I've been in have almost no PC section at all (they don't even carry the most popular new PC games typically). What this will boil down to is if Microsoft really does push the PC platform again at retail. If they do, then things will improve on the retail side; if not, then it's pretty much going to be left to online.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Gamestops for the most part don't carry PC games at all, but analysts did ask about the PC issue when the merger was first announced. So I think we are in for at least one more surprise.
And it seems they are renaming the stores, not shutting the old EBs down.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Some stores will have to be shut down though. Our new "Lifestyle center" here in Jacksonville (St. John's Town Center) has both stores, so obviously one will have to close.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Same at a mall by me, but they may set one to be like the used games store and the other to be the main store. I know a mall with 3 EBs...