The weird history of GameStop is continuing after someone in Quebec bought the Canadian outlets with plans to rename them back to EB Games.
For years now, some viewed GameStop as a company on the way out. Digital sales continue to be an increasingly dominant part of the AAA gaming scene, consoles were making the move to go to digital only, and consoles themselves are also available at big box retail stores (not to mention the fact that they can be ordered online as well). This has put considerable pressure on brick and mortar retail stores specializing in new games.
Yet, as companies that sell specifically that sort of thing seems to be on the way out, GameStop just keeps following a weird trajectory. As stock traders were shorting the living daylights out of the company, we saw Reddit users deciding to randomly buy the stock, causing the short sellers to lose big. The media, in turn, then began begging people to stop buying the stock in the process. This purely for the “lulz”. While it all was funny, GameStop was the recipient of having a surprising new lease on life. The question was this: how is the company going to capitalize on this second change? It turns out, they seemingly weren’t. Not a whole lot changed with the company as it seemingly decided to do little to resurrect itself from the grave after the new financial and unexpected uplift.
Back in February, the CEO announced that he is a hateful racist asshole and a complete nutcase by saying that he wants to sell off GameStop in Canada because Canada has too much “wokeness” and “DEI”. Yeah, a total loony bin. Here’s one of those reports at the time from Mobile Syrup:
The CEO of GameStop has made a particularly baffling and cringeworthy statement regarding his company’s planned sale of its operations in Canada and France.
On X (Twitter), Ryan Cohen posted that “High taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Wokeness and DEI” are included “at no additional cost” with anyone buying either GameStop Canada or Micromania France.
This kind of comment is hardly a surprise coming from Cohen, a noted edgelord whose past comments include baselessly claiming Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election in 2020. That sort of sycophantic behaviour is especially embarrassing, considering Cohen is actually Canadian, originally hailing from Montreal.
At the time, people just rolled their eyes at the idiot. Some dismissed the tweet, saying that they have no idea why he tweeted that. So, for them, it was just another nutcase comment from the head nutcase for the company. Was GameStop really getting sold in all of this?
Well, today, we are learning that not only was the company selling its Canadian operations, but they also got a buyer who is hopefully not as big of an idiot. From the Montreal Gazette:
GameStop Canada says it has been acquired by entrepreneur Stéphan Tétrault from the video game retailer’s struggling parent company.
Officially named Electronics Boutique Canada Inc., GameStop Canada says it will relaunch its 185 stores as EB Games Canada — a name associated with retail gaming until it was rebranded in 2021.
Tétrault is the founder of Montreal-area-based toy manufacturer Imports Dragon and co-owner of American action figure-maker McFarlane Toys, and last month became a partner at Canadian chain Mastermind Toys.
I wish I knew the new owner better, but hopefully he, at minimum, doesn’t have as many screws loose as the last guy. As an added bonus, it may soon be possible to have a blast from the past by heading over to EB Games to pick up something in the process. So, that’s something at least.
So, it seems the sales talk was real in all of this after all. Who knew? It’ll be interesting to see where things go to from here.
(Via @Fagstein)
