In a press release on Monday GameStop announced, that they have now opened their very own NFT marketplace. The new NFT marketplace is in Beta testing and the public can connect and get access to the market by going to GameStop NFT’s official website and connecting their crypto wallet.
GameStop the video game retailer built the platform using Loopring blockchain technology. Loopring (LRC) is an Ethereum layer-2 zk- Rollup protocol, it was designed to help power decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges into NFT marketplaces. In the future, the company plans to add Immutable X.
The launch comes with risks as NFT sales plummet along with the crypto market.
Eventful past few years
GameStop the gaming retailer has been around for many years and has retail outlets throughout the USA. However, the company’s future wasn’t looking bright, with more and more gamers moving to online blockchain gaming.
Things were looking bad for company stocks and Wall St big guns decide it was time to short the stock. But, little did they know that a ‘nefarious’ Reddit group of small-time investors would get together and beat Wall St at its own game, using the Robinhood trading app. The outcome was to make GameStop a meme stock and the company $1 billion richer.
Since then the company has invested heavily in blockchain and Web3 technology going so far as to set up a $100 million fund with Immutable X for the support of developers.
A memo recently sent out to staff from GameStop CEO Matt Furlong, states in the first line where they want to be headed;
Change will be a constant as we evolve our commerce business and launch new products through our blockchain group. After investing heavily in personnel, technology, inventory and supply chain infrastructure over the past 18 months, our focus is on achieving sustained profitability.
Although it must be pointed out that not all is rosy for the company with layoffs and the sacking of the CEO, just days ago, as reported by Kotaku.
GameStop and Immutable X
The GameStop platform will also add Immutable, which is a Layer 2 Ethereum-based blockchain that mitigates some of the problems associated with transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Drawbacks include high energy usage and expensive gas fees. Immutable X on the other hand offloads the energy consumption by “combining hundreds of thousands of transaction records into a single transaction“.
Immutable X is where several of the most talked-about Web3 games are being developed, including Illuvium, Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians. In the future, NFTs from these games will be available to buy and sell on the GameStop NFT marketplace.
GameStop launches NFT marketplace
You can buy, sell, trade and mint your own digital assets on GameStop’s NFT marketplace by connecting a crypto wallet. The platform supports over 10 different digital asset wallets, including Metamask and the Gamestop Wallet, which launched in May.
The GameStop NFT market has over 240 different collections, with the usual fare of non-fungible tokens, including Ape and Cat-themed collections. However, there were others that stood out including an interactive book NFTs entitled ‘Totally Predictable Tales’ and one of the featured creators, Daz 3D.
Future of GameStop NFT market
There were rumors that the NFT marketplace would include Web3 gaming, however, this has not panned out as yet. For the moment it is possible to trade NFTs. So, with the marketplace in the Beta version, it is time to build community members.
Finally, as to GameStop’s future, the company posted
Over time, the marketplace will expand functionality to encompass additional categories such as Web3 gaming, more creators and other Ethereum environments.
