EB Games (formerly known as Electronics Boutique) is an international computer and video games retailer. First established as an American company in 1977 by James Kim with a single electronics-focused kiosk located in a suburban Philadelphia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, the company has grown into a multi-national corporation.

History

Originally, the operation mainly sold calculators and digital watches. Between 1977 and the mid-1990s, the company expanded to (and later stopped) selling computers and other related items (according to the Eb Games employee handbook). In the mid-1990s, the company's focus switched to TV-based video games and consoles, though many stores still maintain PC game sections.

As of July 30, 2005, the company operated 2,280 stores in the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Austria and Spain, primarily under the names EB Games and Electronics Boutique. The company operates an e-commerce and international website at http://www.ebgames.com . There is also an Australian EB Games website at http://www.ebgames.com.au and a New Zealand EB Games website at http://www.ebgames.co.nz , while neither support full online shopping like the international website does, they both have many games available for purchase and download at EB Games Australia - Digital Downloads for Australia and EB Games New Zealand - Digital Downloads for New Zealand. The company changed its corporate name to EB Games within the past few years, but the retailer is often still referred to as Electronics Boutique. The company still has stores named Electronics Boutique, EB Games, EBGameworld, EBX, Stop-N-Save, and EB Kids. The reasoning behind the multiple names is not known, but it is speculated that it is to get around a restriction in many malls that there cannot be two stores with the same name. It was believed that this was the same reason that GameStop had not commenced renaming EB Games stores, however this has been disproven since Gamestop has indeed rebranded all stores to GameStop beginning mid-spring 2007, after the acquisition of Rhino Video Games.

EB Games and GameStop Merger

Prior to an October 2005 merger, when the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corp., the international headquarters were located in West Chester, Pennsylvania. After the merger however, EB Games moved its international headquarters to Sadsburyville, Pennsylvania shortly before the overhaul and reorganization of Southeastern Pennsylvania by Gamestop Corp. Gamestop sold off EB Games' headquarters in Sadsburyville shortly after the new 2006 year. Electronic Boutique's former headquarters in Sadsburyville, Pennsylvania is currently owned and operated by the company C.T.D.I. which also has a facility in West Chester, Pennsylvania.