EB/GamesMan: Better Together?

What does the EB/GamesMan merge mean for you?

Earlier this month, EB Games officially announced its buy-out of the GamesMan in New Zealand. This is business, but what kind of implications does this have for you, the regular video game consumer? It’s a good question, and one worth considering because as of Friday the 18th of July, 2008, New Zealand only has one nationwide games specific retailer.

EB Games are saying their merge with The GamesMan means they’ll be “Better Together”... The GamesMan is changing, but how? What should you expect?
Will they be better together? That’s for you to decide, and to help you we’ve compiled some facts you’ll want to digest before coming to that decision.

Demoralised Staff
Gamers are passionate and gamers who sell games are ferociously passionate. Just as the CEO of Coca Cola would say he has a better brand than Pepsi so did the staff of The GamesMan say about their once-competitor, EB Games.

The staff of The GamesMan are now defeated and are forced to wave the flag of their enemy. It doesn’t take much smarts to understand how humiliating such a situation could be.

In the weekend, I went into a GamesMan store and was greeted by its manager in the same way EB staff are instructed to, that is, with an acknowledgement from the customer side of the counter and an open question un-related to business. He was out of his comfort zone, sweating slightly, and pleading with his eyes for me to end his misery. I decided to humour him by allowing the conversation to flow instead of acting disgruntled by the annoying EB diatribe - I tried to lift his spirits I suppose, but it made me feel no less sad for him.

He was a broken man, whipped into submission by his new masters.

So! Expect to be greeted uneasily by staff at The GamesMan from now on or simply expect to see them act a lot more emo.



New Service
The GamesMan staff are cool. They’ll stay behind the counter, know their product, and be happy to help, if you ask.

Now though, oh! Now things will change. EB staff are put through a rigorous selling programme called GamePro and now The GamesMan staff have gone through it too. It’s pretty bad, in fact, Penny Arcade ripped into once too; such was their disdain. The basic idea was formulated by this guy named Friedman; it is to greet a customer within 30 seconds of entering the store and to break down customer resistance by striking up non-business related conversation which can easily be transitioned into sales. While making the sale the staff member has to mention all 5 of EB Games’ precepts (you can read about these later). Then when closing the sale the staff member must attempt to sell additional products then ask the customer to come back again. Yes it sounds stupid, but it works.

The funny part is that EB staff are generally lummoxes who stand behind the counter looking at their register screens refusing to register any interest in you. However, when they do put in force the GamePro technique you will feel the heat of their breath bearing down the back of your neck.

Whether or not current EB staff preach this coda is irrelevant because it is highly likely that you’ll see The GamesMan staff adopt this sales strategy as a lot of the staff are justifiably worried that they may lose their jobs.


New Policies
As mentioned before, EB Games live by five core precepts, and all eight of The GamesMan stores have begun to adopt these policies too.

• Trade 'n' Save
  
• Preowned: Same Game - Better Value
  
• Preorder any Upcoming New Product
  
• Seen It Cheaper? We'll Match It
  
• 7 Day Trial Period

We all know about EB’s overwhelming pricing structure for pre-owned goods – pay five dollars more or less for a second hand copy of a game with a tattered manual and scratched disc – but there is a plus side. Sort of.

Trading at The GamesMan will now mean you’ll get a lot higher return on your old games. The GamesMan never focused too strongly on the profitability of pre-owned games so never really had their policy sorted. Because of this you, the gamer, were never provided any incentive to trade there. At EB/GamesMan you’ll get more bang for your buck and a wide range of trade-in deals. You can find out what these are yourself, though, EB aren’t paying me to write this.

Of course, you could just sell your games on TradeMe and make at least 60% more but if you’re like me – generally lazy - then trading at EB/GamesMan might be a better option.

Though I may promote trading I can’t in good conscious say that buying pre-owned games is a safe option. EB staff are trained to accept anything you give them. More than once have I seen fake GBA games being sold at an EB store; don’t be an accessory to criminal activity!

Pre-ordering is still the same, except EB/GamesMan will badger you a bit more to do so. If you want to be prepared, just realise that if an upcoming title is similar to the one you’re buying, the staff member will ask you if you want to pre-order it. Buy Call of Duty 4, you’ll be asked to pre-order Call of Duty 5 etc.

EB Games, traditionally, set their prices at the recommended retail price and do not drop them, ever, unless they’re having a sale (which happens about two or three times a year). Because of this they offer the price-match system. If you see a game cheaper at Dick Smith or Noel Lemmings, and provided they have it in stock, you can ask EB/GamesMan to match that price. Though this is a great idea in theory more often than not EB staff will expressively exhibit how unhappy they are to do this for you. It is possible, however, that with demoralised GamesMan staff they will be more than happy to price-match, after all, it cuts into EB profits now, not theirs.

This next one is my favourite, and one I probably use too much. EB’s 7-day right of return; it’s awesome. The GamesMan hardly ever let you return games and try to quote the consumer’s guarantees act to back up their decision. You can forget about that hassle now. Within seven days, if you want to take back a game for whatever reason, you can. Thought the game sucked? Take it back. Finished it in two days? Take it back. Your son hated the gift? Take it back. The power is now yours, Mr GamesMan Consumer. And don’t think it’s a hassle either, or that you’ll be denied, no, unlike price-matching EB staff are more than happy to oblige. Heck, you can even get your money back in full if you like. Pretty sweet, eh?



What about Tana?
Yeah… about him. He hasn’t really done any promo work for The GamesMan for a while now and with this new merge of businesses it is unlikely you’ll ever see his face asking you if you “Wanna Play” ever again.

What you will get in his place, though, is Pain. Pain like you’ve never experienced before. The kind of Pain even Eli Roth would never put in one of his movies. I’m talking about the EB Voice. The Voice of Evil. Capital V. Capital E.

If you’ve never walked into an EB store before let me explain to you the Voice in as few words as possible. EB has TV’s showing off upcoming games and special offers, which is cool, but - and this is a big but – they are narrated by the most nasal and heavily Australian-accented man God and the Devil have ever known. His Voice will make your ears bleed and bring you to your knees. By the end of it all you will cry for your mother and regret the life you’ve lived.

The Devil fears It, and so should you.


Hard to Find Imports
Of all the things we’ll lose amongst this EB/GamesMan merge this is the one which will be missed the most. Go to EB and ask for a copy of The World Ends With You. Oh, they don’t have it? OK, try Psychonauts. No again? Oh dear. What about Contra 4? No? Odin’s Sphere? Come on!

EB don’t bother with these niche titles, and if they do, it’s a very, very limited supply; we’re talking ten to twenty copies across the nation. It’s true that on occasion they will source items from Australia but only if they’re big mainstream titles like Guild Wars and Mario Kart. If the game doesn’t have a local distributor you can forget about seeing it on an EB shelf.

The only compromise is that The GamesMan store will continue to operate as it always has and have promised to keep sourcing these sorts of imports for us.

Of course, you can still import yourself from places like DVDBoxOffice.com and Play-Asia, so the resilient gamer needn’t worry too much about this.



No More Hanky-Panky, No More Arty-Farty
Madman is the distributor of an excellent range of foreign films, anime and… hentai. The GamesMan has always been proud stockists of their range whereas EB have been rather abysmal at maintaining any sort of DVD stock. Though you’ll still be able to pick up the foreign films and anime from Whitcoulls and Real Groovy you can forget about buying porn from a video game store. EB is all about creating a family-friendly environment for customers to walk into and porn, my friend, is not family-friendly.


Thirty-One (and counting) Plus Eight
Is there a GamesMan near you? Yes? Is there an EB Games near you? No? Good. That means you don’t have to worry about your GamesMan closing down. Yet.

The chances are that if your GamesMan store is close to an EB then it will close down over the coming months. This is simply because it’s completely uneconomical to permanently operate two stores within walking distance of each other

At this point in time all The GamesMan stores will remain branded as The GamesMan but in-store policies are completely and irrefutably EB. This won’t last, though. In due time The GamesMan stores will lose the black and yellow and begin wearing the black, white and red.

This change of ‘colours’ will only happen after the redundant GamesMan stores are closed down. Why’s that you ask? Because it looks much better for EB if The GamesMan is closing down, and not the other way around.

Mind you, it is entirely possible that the isolated stores will close down too. Since EB stores are all designed to look the same your local competition-free GamesMan may close down only to re-open across the road with a more distinct EB decor.


More Questions?
You may still have a few more questions, even after reading this, so I suggest two things. One, go to the official New Zealand EB Games website and read their FAQ. Two, post your question below and someone will come to you with knowledge.

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