Yesterday, GameStop officially announced the launch of its NFT marketplace with Immutable X. The website now unlocks access to web3 games such as Gods Unchained, Immortal Game, and Guild of Guardians, amongst others.
This announcement follows the beta launch of the NFT marketplace in July this year as a self-custodial platform providing gaming NFTs to GameStop’s players and “Powerup Pro Loyalty” customers.
According to GameStop’s financial report, as of January 2022, its loyalty program had approximately 50.5 million members, of which 16.1 million (31%) purchased or traded at GameStop in the previous year. Considering its member base and the opportunity for members to access the NFT through the GameStop wallet, the company’s established user base could provide competition to existing NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea and LooksRare, and Rarible.
GameStop’s stock value surged in January 2021 as part of the meme-mania. However, after raising quite a bit of funding, its price has since dropped. Arguably, its entry into the NFT marketplace was purported to be redemption for the company. However, that remains to be seen, considering the recent drop in NFT trades across the board.The company lost more than $260 million in the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, in February, Immutable X was announced as Gamestop’s Ethereum layer2 partner, along with a $100 million fund in Immutable X’s IMX tokens, which the parties were to grant to creators of NFT content and technology.
