Video game retailer EB Games lost $11.5m as it shut NZ stores

Video game retailer EB Games slumped to an $11.5 million full-year loss as the company shut down its New Zealand operations.

The results were recorded for the year ended January 2026, and compared with a $4.2m loss in the same period a year earlier.

EB Games announced the closure of its New Zealand business in January, affecting 38 stores.

The bigger loss was driven by a $7.3m accounting write-down as it shut down its operations, and a significant increase in the cost of changes in inventories of finished goods, which rose from $370,000 to $9.8m.

It meant total expenses rose nearly 30 percent to $71.9m.

EB Games paid $801,000 in employee severance costs and $609,000 for accrued leave owed to staff.

In January, managing director Shane Stockwell said the New Zealand business was not commercially viable, citing its losses for the 2024 year.

"We are saddened to be in this position having already made significant and repeated efforts to turn the business around," Stockwell wrote at the time of closure.

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