GameStop’s NFT Marketplace Goes Live to Mixed Reception

GameStop’s NFT marketplace is officially live as of July 11, 2022. Users who’ve set up their GameStop wallets are now free to fill them with NFTs from the marketplace, along with any Ethereum they’ve set aside for this big day.

So how’s it doing? Well, financially speaking, pretty good. Reports from GameStop analysis Twitter account GMEdd indicate that within 12 hours, the marketplace has grossed well over $1 million in trading volume.

GMEdd also cited MetaBoy as the marketplace’s highest-grossing collection, netting over $100 thousand in sales within the marketplace’s first few days online. One piece in the collection even features an asking price of over $2 billion, though it’s unlikely it’ll actually sell for anywhere close to that amount.

GameStop’s bullish continued run into NFTs and Web3 as a whole follows two key announcements surrounding the once-beleaguered games retailer. First is its incoming four-for-one stock split set to take effect on trading floors this July 22. While this move (along with the promising early returns of its NFT marketplace) may lure more investors to the company, only time will tell if it will result in long-term success.

The move also follows early July reports regarding massive layoffs within the company’s corporate sector as it continues to push toward cutting costs and maximizing its current Web3 strategy. These layoffs also included the departure of its CFO Mike Recupero, as well as several employees of GameStop-owned magazine Game Informer.

With the timing of its layoffs, and the current struggles faced by the NFT market, some users have been left disappointed by GameStop’s aggressive Web3 strategy.

Some are even down on the strategy entirely, with Forbes contributor Paul Tassi writing a scathing indictment of the new marketplace, calling it an “OpenSea knockoff [… full of] memers running around listing garbage art JPEGs for millions of dollars.”

With initial reception so mixed, it remains to be seen if GameStop will be able to taste the highs it saw during its time as a meme stock in early 2021.