GameStop, the popular video games retailer and trade-in outlet, is serious about its entry into the crypto-verse and has posted eight job listings in the past week which hint at a major blockchain and non-fungible token (NFT) expansion. GameStop’s vision for its future was also mentioned in one of the listings where the company notes, “games are places you’ll go” and “blockchains will power the commerce beneath.” The jobs posted mention “Web3 gaming” for which it seeks two head product owners. Two separate listings reference its NFT marketplace, for which the company seeks three senior software engineers and three directors of product marketing.
The jobs posts clearly ask for crypto-forward prospects to apply, hinting at the company’s expansion plans into the space. While the “Web3 gaming” listing implies GameStop’s interest in building a metaverse similar to the one that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about, the other two listing focus on its NFT marketplace expansion.
“Deeply understand what our gaming partners are trying to achieve and how NFTs can be a key business driver,” the advertisement reads. The positions which pertain to the NFT platform — which was first teased in May 2021 — call for those with “NFT marketplace experience and knowledge of crypto, Ethereum and Ethereum Layer 2 products.” This makes it clear that GameStop is indeed planning to launch its own marketplace for NFT instead of launching NFTs on a third-party marketplace.
As the jobs showed up on GameStop’s website, Redditors went giddy with excitement. A post that had a screenshot of the job advertisement garnered over 10,000 reactions as many users advocated the move.
The development also comes at a time when the gaming industry isn’t quite sure of how to integrate its existing products with crypto payments and NFTs. While it may seem a likely pairing — gaming and virtual worlds with virtual currency — major gaming platforms aren’t all on board.
Steam recently announced a ban on games which include crypto and NFTs. However, Epic Games made a reactionary statement that it is “open to games that support cryptocurrency or blockchain-based assets.”
On the other end of the spectrum, blockchain-based games such as Axie Infinity have surged in popularity and in-game NFT trading has increased exponentially in popularity. So much so that there’s a new community of gamers that look at blockchain gaming as a source of passive income.
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