GameStop is seemingly ignoring that whole “crypto winter” thing and going ahead with the launch of its own NFT marketplacewhich is now open in what the company calls a “public beta.”
At this point, you can use the platform to buy, sell and create NFTs. There are more than 200 collections you can read and over 53,000 NFTs listed on the market†The art I’ve seen seems to be pretty standard NFT fare – in just a few minutes of perusing, I’ve already seen some weird ones cat and monkey theme collections for example. Unsurprisingly, you can plug in the newly launched GameStop Wallet to manage your digital assets, but you can also use options like WalletConnect and MetaMask. And not just anyone can create an NFT on the platform — interested creators will have to applyâ€
GameStop has bigger plans for the market and says in a press release that it plans to “expand functionality” into areas such as Web3 gaming. On the homepage of the NFT marketplace, GameStop is already teasing that support for Immutable X, a platform built on Ethereum used by some NFT games, is coming soon. GameStop and Immutable X also have a $100 million grant programâ€
The gaming retailer first announced in February that it planned to open its own NFT marketplace, but in recent weeks, sales of NFTs have fallen amid a bigger downturn in crypto in general. Crypto firms like Coinbase, BlockFi and Crypto.com have had to lay off staff in an effort to weather the storm, but GameStop is pushing ahead with its plans despite its own problems. GameStop opens its NFT market just days after the layoff of staff and firing of its CFO, and crypto efforts appear to be an important part of the company’s future; in a memo to employees about the layoffs, CEO Matt Furlong mentioned GameStop’s blockchain group in the very first sentence.