GameStop has moved away from the meme hype and officially into the NFT marketplace with Australian blockchain startup Immutable X.
On Thursday, GameStop (NYSE: GME) announced its plans to develop and launch its own NFT marketplace later this year in partnership with Australian blockchain startup, Immutable X.
Surprisingly, this announcement isn’t much of a surprise, considering reports last month from The Wall Street Journal that GameStop had hired more than 20 people to run its NFT marketplace division and establish cryptocurrency platforms to shift its videogame infrastructure.
Nevertheless, this partnership marks a major transition from Gamestop’s popular meme stock to a gaming conglomerate that will now embark on its Web3 and cryptocurrency journey with a highly reputable blockchain company.
“We are going to market to try to bring NFTs to games,” Ferguson said. “The $100 million fund is going to be dedicated to everyone from indie games to AAA publishers who want to come and build on Immutable X and also want to have access to GameStop’s distribution [and] marketplace.”
Valued at over $41 billion, the NFT market has opened its doors to household brands across the globe, making art an essential part of every industry, particularly gaming.
$100M fund for game developers
According to the recent announcement, the partnership will also establish a $100M fund in Immutable X’s IMX tokens that will be leveraged towards game developers and used as grants for NFT creators.
As these future games will be built upon Immutable X’s blockchain, Immutable X will reportedly become a layer-2 partner and platform for GameStop, which will allow IMX token holders to stake, vote, and pay transaction fees all on the IMX Protocol. These IMX tokens are specific to the Immutable X protocol.
Will reluctant gamers fight GameStop?
In an interview with CoinDesk, Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson said that the effect of this partnership is to emphasize Gamestop’s mission of empowering players.
“The $100 million is a minimum of what we’re doing,” he said. However, for those gamers who aren’t “fans” of the NFT movement, there will certainly be resistance.
Addressing the underrepresented gaming communities, where gamers for far too long have been taken advantage of by publishers and distributors, the idea of bringing NFTs into their space is another attempt at changing an ecosystem that, in their minds, have worked for so long.
On the other hand, this is also a step in the right direction for many of these previously underserved communities to finally have the chance to monetize their work and be recognized for their innovation and creativity.
Want to be a creator on the new NFT marketplace?
For now, creators from gaming studios, Web3, and metaverse gaming developers can request to be a content creator on GameStop’s NFT marketplace.
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