GameStop Corp. said it will launch a marketplace for non-fungible tokens later this year in partnership with an Australian blockchain startup, stepping into a trendy but unproven area of the tech as the videogame retailer tries to turn around its struggling business.
Gamestop said Thursday that Sydney-based Immutable Pvt Ltd will help develop the marketplace on its carbon-neutral platform, called Immutable X, which uses Ethereum, a blockchain-based computer network.
GameStop also said it intends to create a fund with up to $100 million worth of immutables to distribute to developers to create NFTs for its marketplace that can be used in games. Gamestop said the fund will be created using the immutable’s cryptocurrency called IMAX. Immutable has also agreed to pay GameStop $150 million worth of IMAX if GameStop’s Marketplace achieves transaction milestones and meets other criteria.
GameStop’s NFT initiative was reported by The Wall Street Journal last month. The Journal article said the retailer had hired more than 20 people to run a new division focused on building partnerships around NFT- and cryptocurrency-related projects.
Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop is working to reset its business after years of losses. The company changed its executive team and board of directors in June after activist investor Ryan Cohen pushed for change. Mr. Cohen was named president and has repeatedly pledged to make GameStop more tech-focused.
Last year individual investors helped boost the retailer’s stock price as part of a wider stock-trading frenzy.
GameStop’s turnaround efforts haven’t resulted in a major improvement in its financial performance so far. For the quarter through October, the company said revenue grew, but its losses widened compared to the same period a year ago.
Shares of GameStop have fallen nearly 50% over the past three months, but are still well above where they were trading in 2020.
In developing an NFT market, GameStop is entering the much hyped and unproven territory. A handful of NFT marketplaces already exist, including tokens from some game publishers. Last month, a marketplace called OpenSea said it raised $300 million in venture capital, putting its valuation at $13.3 billion. GameStop’s current market capitalization is less than $9 billion.
According to its co-founder and president, Robbie Ferguson, Immutable was founded in late 2017 and has 152 employees. He said Irreversible has raised about $85 million in funding.
This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed
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