EB Games Canada president wants to return to Canadian roots

EB Games Canada is back.

After four years of operating as “GameStop Canada,” the historic Canadian video game retailer is being rebranded to its original name. It’s part of an acquisition by the French-Canadian entrepreneur Stephan Tetrault, the founder of Imports Dragon and co-owner of McFarlane Toys, and it makes EB Games Canada independent from GameStop for the first time since 2005.

Under CEO Tetraut’s leadership, the newly (re)rebranded EB Games Canada says it aims to “return to its roots with a fresh identity that merges classic elements with modern retail experiences.” To learn more about this new venture, MobileSyrup sat down with EB Games Canada president Jim Tyo. In a wide-ranging interview, he talked about the Canadian significance of the name “EB Games,” GameStop CEO’s controversial comments about “wokeness and DEI” in Canada, plans to expand in-store events and experiences, and more.

It’s only been four years since EB Games rebranded to GameStop in Canada. And arguably, the “easy” thing to do might have been to just leave that branding as is. But you’ve opted to go through the process of changing everything back to EB Games Canada. Why was it important to return to that original EB Games Canada branding? What do you think that name means to Canadians?

Nostalgic much?

Check the FAQs here: https://t.co/CEuwWMDfxd

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Un peu de nostalgie ?

Consultez les FAQ ici : https://t.co/CEuwWMDfxd pic.twitter.com/oXKVUxruWF

— EB Games Canada (@GameStopCanada) May 5, 2025

Jim Tyo: It’s such an iconic brand. I think it really resonates with the Canadian consumer, and I also believe that my team still identifies as EB Games. We go back to the beginning, in 1993, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the team that was responsible for building Electronics Boutique at the time. We were Electronics Boutique for five years until 1998, and since then, we’ve been EB Games. And EB Games was acquired because we were doing an IPO. Even when GameStop purchased EB Games in 2006, we opted to keep the EB Games brand, and it was important to us, because it has such brand loyalty and recognition. And it really wasn’t until 2021 when we went through the GameStop brand change.

And ultimately, I think that decision was made by global because the meme craze was in full effect, and the GameStop brand had been elevated to a level we never thought possible. And if you’re ever going to transition the brand, that was ideally the time to do it. But as we turn a new page, and EB Games is recognized as a Canadian brand and Canadian retailer, the timing just seemed right to step back and get to our roots again. And I can tell you, I did town halls with the team last night and this morning, and they’re so happy. They’re so happy to be returning to EB Games. And looking online at a lot of the social posts as well, our customers are thrilled. I think it’s the right time for a fresh beginning.

Stephan Tetrault is a prominent entrepreneur with a prolific career that includes McFarlane Toys and Imports Dragon. How do you hope that his particular expertise will help usher in this new era for EB Games Canada?

Tyo: I think you nailed it. He’s a legend in the toys and collectibles space. He’s an innovator from product design to marketing. He has a great connection and feel for the market. I think he’s going to be able to open doors for us. I think he’s going to be able to provide insight and vision on the toys and collectibles side. Our toys and collectibles business is significant. It will be $100 million this year. It’s our fastest growth segment at over 30 percent. And now that we have Stephan and his influence, we expect to accelerate that growth and expand our pipelines.

Earlier this year, when the announcement was made that GameStop was looking to sell its Canadian Division, the GameStop CEO, Ryan Cohen, generated some controversy by citing “wokeness and DEI” in that original decision. Would you agree with that assessment, or were there other factors that led to this sale regarding GameStop Canada?

Email M&[email protected] if you’re interested in buying GameStop Canada or Micromania France. High taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Wokeness and DEI included at no additional cost if you buy today!

— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) February 18, 2025

Tyo: I’m not going to comment on the specifics of it, but what I would say is that it was a polarizing comment. It was meant to market the Canadian and the France Micromania business. And I think that he got the message across that they were for sale. That garnered a lot of interest. So ultimately, the marketing message worked, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with where we landed in terms of ownership.

The press release touts a lot of different things that you’re hoping to do. One of these is “enhanced in-store events.” Can you elaborate a little bit? In a high-level sense, what sorts of “enhanced” events can customers maybe expect?

Tyo: We’ll really step into midnight launches again for games. We’ll invest in trading card events. And we’re going to make more [of an effort] to get back to our roots. When I first started this business back in ’93, we were a first-to-market business, and we celebrated every single release, and the passion that it ignited within the consumers was incredible. And I think toys and collectibles offer a very similar opportunity for that because there are new releases or new IPs launching all the time. And I think when you have someone like Stephan Tetrault helping drive that, I think we’re going to find more involvement and commitment from our vendor partners in that space. And that’s our thought process on the event side of it.

But he’s also really passionate about investing in our stores and creating more experiential sections and technology investments. And of course, this will happen over time. But it’s fantastic to see, and the team is over the moon because having an owner that has passion for their business is really incredible.

You mentioned midnight launches. The timing of all of this comes one month before the Nintendo Switch 2, and GameStop Canada had already confirmed that will be midnight launches at some of the stores. As you look ahead to that launch, are you planning to do additional sorts of experiences to build interest and give fans an opportunity to play with the Nintendo Switch 2?

Tyo: I don’t know if that’s going to be possible at this point, but definitely midnight launches to start. We’re going to have our plate pretty full — that’s going to be a monster day for us. And we really have spent quite a bit of time positioning our stores as kind of a “Nintendo one-stop shop.” Not only do we have the most Nintendo video game products available for sale, but also the expanded Nintendo franchises, in terms of Pokémon and related goods like that. We have quite an expanded selection. And I think that’s really that crossover has helped build the toys, collectible and video game business.

So I think we’ll start with this — this launch is huge. We’ve got Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy trading card launch on June 13 right after that, which will be big, and potentially more midnights on that. What we’ll do in the future as we go forward is likely make events around the trading cards as well. They’ve become such a massive part of the business.

Another thing this coincides with, unintentionally — we’ve seen in the last couple months, with the general market trends, a lot of prices have been going up. Nintendo is going to start charging up to $110 for some of its games. Xbox just raised the prices of consoles and accessories, and games in the future. And no doubt other companies will follow suit. How do you plan to respond to these price increases and weather that storm as you build back up EB Games Canada?

Tyo: We always let the consumer decide. One of the advantages of our model is we have a very robust reservation model, and it allows us to check the temperature with our customers. As soon as an IP is available, we put it out for available to reserve. And that really dictates, while we analyze costing on our side, it allows us to gauge the customer’s appetite for that title and also for the pricing. And ultimately, they’ll make the decision for us, or in partnership with us.

You touched on it a little bit with Magic: The Gathering. The press release mentioned a “deeper integration” with pop-culture brands. Could you elaborate a little bit on that? By pop-culture brands, you mean collectibles, merchandise — that sort of thing?

Tyo: Yeah. I think leaning into Stephan’s expertise and rolodex, we’re going to see a lot of doors open up for us, and so we will continue to expand in that while being true to video games. Because I think the two were a perfect marriage with each other, and really look forward to that.

After I covered this news, I saw quite a few people respond with excitement. A few, specifically, said they’d love to see EB Games Canada start to invest more in retro games. And I know the press release teased “expanded product lines.” Are retro games something that you’d be interested in maybe pursuing more in the future?

Tyo: Maybe down the line. We have tested it before, and it’s a really hard model. The volume isn’t there. There’s a lot of passion for retro games, but the problem is finding the right location where you have enough concentrated population that are passionate about the games to make it a viable business.

In the press release, it’s mentioned that you want to have a “renewed focus on Canadians.” What does that mean? What are you hoping to achieve with that?

Tyo: Obviously, with EB Games, I feel that Canadians feel that’s their brand. We’re proudly Canadian. One of the things that is most evident to me, and a real headline of this story, is Stephan Tetrault investing in Canadian retail. The recent announcement of his partnership with Mastermind Toys is a prime example. He’s planting a flag in Canada and declaring his belief in Canadian retail and I think that’s amazing for Canadians.

We’ll continue, through new technology, to try to deliver a more robust customer experience. For example, [we’re] exploring new technology to do ship from store. We have 185 stores and consider those mini warehouses, and we can ship directly out of them and their unique inventory. Every store has slightly different inventory, particularly with their used games offering. So this really opens up a lot of flexibility and agility to service customers in the way that they want to be serviced.

You mentioned that you’ve been with the company for so long, which I think gives you a really interesting perspective. As you go forward into this new era — or a return to an older era, in a sense — what are you most excited about? What are some of the bigger challenges with the last guard of GameStop Canada, if you will, that you’re looking forward to addressing and expanding upon as EB Games Canada?

Tyo: Looking forward, we’ve never had an owner that’s been as passionate about the business that we’re in. And that resonates through the whole community, I feel, and our team. So I think that that’s probably the most interesting element for me; we have this passion that’s been lit within the organization. And I can tell you, the energy on these town hall calls and in the office earlier today was incredible. And I think that that’s gotten a lot of excitement. Because as we forge into new product categories and toys and collectibles — knowing that you have an expert helping steer the ship is very different, and it just feels amazing. That’s the most exciting thing for me.

Referencing GameStop and our time with GameStop — a lot of smart people at GameStop, and a lot of amazing friends, and we did a lot of things. We made GameStop a lot of money over the years, and I’m proud of all of that. But it’s super exciting to be looking forward.

This interview has been edited for language and clarity.

Image credit: Shutterstock