One of the more immediate business plans of GameStop shared across multiple investor calls, press releases, and website updates is the introduction of a GameStop NFT marketplace that will allow users to create and trade NFTs.
In its most recent earnings results, GameStop shared that it was close to launching this new marketplace with a target of Q2 2022. However, it looks like the foundational website is already up for said NFT marketplace. Steely-eyed sleuths have recently found GameStop’s beta NFT market website.
The beta GameStop NFT Marketplace website was initially spotted by Twitter users such as acidburn.eth. The GameStop NFT Marketplace seems to host a number of features users might expect out a platform for creating and trading NFTs, including the ability to connect a crypto wallet to the platform.
Currently, Metamask and WalletConnect are options. However, GameStop also seems to be prepping its own first-party wallet in the form of the GameStop Wallet Browser Extension. Taking to medium on Wednesday, March 23, the Loopring team announced that the Beta version of the GameStop NFT marketplace was built using Loopring’s layer two (L2) ZK-rollup technology.
According to the Loopring team, the beta version of Gamestop’s NFT market called beta.nft.gamestop.com is now live. According to Loopring’s head of growth, Adam Browman, GameStop, through its NFT marketplace, seeks to provide “fast, cheap, and secure” access to digital ownership for the masses.
By integrating with Loopring, Browman explains that the GameStop marketplace will allow users to mint NFTs directly on Loopring L2 for “fractions” of the costly gas fees resulting from minting on Ethereum L1, approximately less than $1.
Although the marketplace was launched with limited functions, users can now connect an Ethereum wallet to the platform and add funds via Loopring’s layer-2 scaling solution. However, there’s no NFT trading functionality at present.
It’s unknown exactly what the details are on GameStop’s first-party wallet option, but the company will likely share more details on the matter as we get closer to its NFT Marketplace’s launch in Q2 2022. Among its many initiatives, GameStop has shared a vested interest in getting on board the NFT trend while it’s still hot. While interest doesn’t seem to be running as high as it was in 2021 as of late, the opportunity is still arguably there and GameStop has been prepping for it with various website teases, such as creator application signups.
Much of GameStop’s most recent plans for the NFT marketplace were shared as part of its Q4 2021 earnings results. With a Q2 2022 launch in mind, we expect many more details will come out sooner than later. For more on GameStop and its NFT Marketplace, stay tuned right here at Shacknews for the latest updates as they happen.