GameStop Announces Plans for NFT Marketplace

Video game chain and meme stock symbol GameStop is pouring up to $100 million into a new non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.

GameStop revealed early on Friday it would be teaming up with Immutable X (IMX) for the marketplace, using the Ethereum-based network as a layer-2 partner for the project. The partnership established an up to $100 million fund in Immutable X’s IMX tokens which both parties will also use to for grants to creators of NFT content and technology.

GameStop said the terms of the partnership provide for Immutable X to contribute up to $150 million in IMX to GameStop “upon achievement of certain milestones.”

The video game chain hinted an interest in the NFT space last year when posted a flurry of different job postings looking for engineers, marketers, and product heads for Web3 and NFT marketplace-related responsibilities.

Immutable X touts itself as “limiteless exchange protocol” that allows for zero gas fees, zero custodial risks, and a massive throughput of 9,000 transactions per second, all under the security of Ethereum. Immutable X aims for every transaction to also be carbon neutral by paying for its own carbon offsets.

GameStop joins other prominent companies in the gaming industry attempting to get a grip on the NFT and blockchain space. Last month, tech giant Microsoft bought up Activision in a move to embrace the metaverse.

“This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse,” the technology giant said.

Other gaming companies like EA have treaded a bit more cautiously, possibly in the face of widespread anti-NFT sentiment in gamer culture. EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that “collectibility” was important for EA games, but didn’t specifically say what he meant.

"Whether that's a part of NFTs and the blockchain, well, that remains to be seen," he said. "The way we think about it is: we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can. We'll evaluate that over time, but right now it's not something that we're driving hard against."