Video game retailer GameStop finally launched its NFT marketplace on July 11, the company announced. The platform, which is a non-custodial Ethereum Layer-2 has reportedly recorded over $1 million in sales just hours after launched, surpassing Coinbase’s NFT marketplace’s $74k sales volume on its first day.
GameStop Ignores Market Turmoil, Records Over $3 Million in Sales
GameStop NFTs came at a point where the market is experiencing some heavy crunches. According to data from NFT aggregator CryptoSlam, NFT sales have dropped over 65%, going from $4.6 billion in May to $1.5 billion in June.
The platform is not performing badly, however, as data shows the platform currently boasts over 200 collections —totalling over 53,000 NFTs—, over $3.6 million in revenue and 45,000 transactions in 24 hours of debut. For now, only allowed contributors can mint NFTs on the platform, but according to Matt Finestone —Head of Blockchain at GameStop— the retailer will focus on expanding creator participation and support assets from other platforms.
gm Ξveryone!
GameStop NFT is live in beta! A non-custodial, Ethereum-L2 marketplace where the community can truly own the digital assets they love 👾https://t.co/oqv5eOdXTC
Incredibly grateful for the GameStop team & community for making this a reality 😍 #PowerToThePlayers https://t.co/5McGtTGFD9
— Matt FinΞstonΞ | 3body.eth (@finestonematt) July 12, 2022
The company announced a partnership with Ethereum scaling solution Loopring to power the GameStop NFT Marketplace. Loopring is a popular layer-2 ZK (Zero-Knowledge) rollup that provides fast, secured and cheap ERC-20 transactions off-chain.
Users can connect the recently launched GameStop Wallet to trade NFTs in the marketplace or an Ethereum wallet such as MetaMask. Though the primary focus right now is NFT artwork, GameStop said it intends to become a giant in the GameFi industry by allowing users to trade in-game NFTs such as those used in play-to-earn games, thanks to a partnership with Immutable X, another layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum.
And What Are The People Saying About GameStop NFTs?
Most people and industry-watchers were skeptical at first, considering GameStop has had a hard time covering losses in recent years. This July, the videogame retailer announced layoffs across departments, including Chief Financial Officer Mike Recupero.
But it seems the majority of the GameStop community has well received the NFT marketplace, and some people are comparing its success with the debut of Coinbase NFT, which had a daunting first month of sales volume in mid-May with barely 5,446 transactions.
The community now expects to see a bigger sales volume as soon as the company broadens contributor participation and support for off-platform NFTs.
Will GameStop’s NFT marketplace surpass the success of other secondary marketplaces like @LooksRare and @Coinbase_NFT??
— Hunter is Writing a Daily Web3 Newsletter✨ (@NFTpublisher) July 12, 2022
GameStop’s digital turnaround was already circulating on social media a year ago when a user found a Loopring line of code referencing GameStop on GitHub, which was later removed. The company later announced the hiring of new employees for a “new NFT project.”
GameStop first unveiled its plans to launch an NFT marketplace in February. But as soon as NFT sales dropped in early May and the general crypto market plunged, most people were reluctant to the idea that an NFT platform would have some sort of immediate success —even worse for a company considered left for dead. GameStop now has to compete with some of the behemoths in the NFT industry, OpenSea and LooksRare, for example.
Not All Gamers are Thrilled With NFTs
While GameStop plans to dive deeper into the Web3 gaming industry, the traditional gaming community has responded with both enthusiasm and disdain to the idea of major publishers introducing NFTs to their already existing franchises. Such was the case with Ubisoft, a major game developer that partnered with blockchain protocol Tezos to introduce in-game NFTs on games such as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon.