game station Enter the NFT space by creating a marketplace for non-fungible tokens.
The Wall Street Journal initially broke the news, but since then, many sources familiar with the matter have spoken to other outlets. According to sources who spoke to CNBC, GameStop’s plan is to form a cryptocurrency partnership to “create games and items for the marketplace.” The marketplace is currently accepting requests to become creators and will focus on virtual game items such as cosmetics and weapons.
The company appears to have been hiring people with blockchain and crypto backgrounds over the past few months, with more than two dozen employees currently on the team.
The company’s stock jumped 20% when news of its entry into the industry came.
For those unfamiliar with NFTs, they are non-interchangeable units of data that can be used to represent easily replicable items such as audio, memes, photos, and other types of digital files. When stored on a blockch ain, similar to a digital ledger, the technology provides digital creators with proof of ownership. It works similarly to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, except that each NFT may represent a different asset and a different value.
The largest market with room for growth is OpenSea, currently valued at $13.3 billion.
Recently, Ubisoft announced its own NFT platform, Quartz, and the first game to use it will be Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The new platform will allow users to acquire NFTs called Digits, which will be released as part of limited editions, each consisting of a fixed number of cosmetic items.
Fable mastermind Peter Molyneux has also joined the trend. Back in December, Molyneux announced that his company’s 22 Cans’ next game, Legacy, would leverage blockchain and let players buy NFTs in a commercial simulation gaming environment.
Square Enix has expressed interest in NFTs, while other companies such as Microsoft and Valve appear to be less enthusiastic about the emerging technology.
