EB Games is coming back to Canada, ‘with community, nostalgia, and innovation at its heart’

EB Games lives again—in Canada, at least. GameStop Canada has been acquired by Stephan Tetrault, an entrepreneur and “longtime leader in the collectibles and entertainment space,” and is being relaunched as EB Games Canada, “a beloved and iconic name many Canadian gamers still associate with their earliest gaming experiences.”

It seems like an odd move at first blush. The rise of online shopping has been absolutely murder for conventional retail, and nowhere is that truer than in the field of videogame sales. Why go to the trouble of driving to the mall, after all, when you can just browse over to your digital storefront of choice and choose from among, well, everything?

“This isn’t just a business decision—it’s about bringing something back that Canadians truly loved,” Tetrault said in a statement. “We’re going to build something special here, with community, nostalgia, and innovation at its heart.”

Tetrault is definitely going to have to lean into those aspirational qualities. Selling videogames is pretty much a sideline for game retailers these days, which typically seem to be more focused on Funkos, gift cards, peripherals, various types of game-adjacent swag and occasionally getting stupid with NFTs, that is. But that seems to be more up his alley anyway: He’s the founder and owner of Imports Dragon, a “global toy manufacturer and distributor that has become one of the fastest growing toy companies in Canada,” and is also co-owner of McFarlane Toys.

It’s kind of amusing (to me, at least) that GameStop hasn’t actually been in Canada all that terribly long. It has been legally—GameStop acquired EB Games in 2005—but it continued to operate in the country as EB Games until 2021, when it finally got around to rebranding. Less than four years later, it all seems like kind of a waste of time: The old name is coming back, but for many of us who aren’t regular visitors, it never really left.

It’s been years since EB (or GameStop) had any relevance to PC gaming, but I’m old enough to remember when it was a destination—a time before the eminence of Steam, when PC games came in boxes, took up as much space on the shelves as console games, and browsing the bargain bins—which to be clear were literally wire bins with cheap games dumped into them—was a genuine and often rewarding thrill. And I know that’s not coming back, but even so it’ll be nice to see the old shingle back over the door—and yeah, I’ll probably stick my head in when I’m in town anyway.