GameStop celebrated the launch of its NFT marketplace on Monday. Its Ethereum-based depot for virtually autographed JPEGs arrived just days after the meme stock giant ruthlessly laid off more employees, and based on my short tour through its website, it’s also still a little broken in places.
No one can quite seem to make sense of GameStop’s current business strategy, least of all its pivot to crypto. Teased earlier this year, the ailing gaming retailer released a GameStop Wallet in May that users could download to exchange cryptocurrency and “store NFTs securely.” Since then, cryptocurrencies have tanked and the NFT market has all but collapsed.
One senior former employee, who wished to remain anonymous while they search for a new job, told Kotaku they were skeptical the company’s crypto team was big enough to launch anything that would meaningfully impact GameStop’s bottom line. They also believed it was mostly just aimed at exciting investors and people on Reddit.
“As noted last week, our leadership team is committed to profitably growing our commerce business and launching new products, including those developed by our blockchain team,” CEO Matt Furlong, referencing last week’s layoff announcement, told staff in an email today (a copy of which was reviewed by Kotaku). “GameStop of the future has a unique opportunity to anticipate and meet an expanding range of customer demands and merging interest across our stores, web properties, and the virtual world.”
kotaku.com/gamestop-nft-crypto-scam-meme-stock-layoffs-1849166655