NFT Market Revenue Plummets as Gaming Giant GameStop Announces Exit
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NFT Market Revenue Plummets as Gaming Giant GameStop Announces Exit
GameStop discontinued support for its NFT wallet in November last year.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsSource: blackworks
Compiled by: Blockchain Knight
Gaming giant GameStop has announced via a website banner that it will shut down its NFT marketplace on February 2 due to "ongoing regulatory uncertainty in the crypto asset space."
For the same reason, GameStop discontinued support for its NFT wallet back in November last year.
The trend of major companies losing interest in NFTs continues, following social media platform X's decision last week to discontinue its NFT avatar feature.
GameStop began exploring the creation of an NFT marketplace in May 2021, shortly after a retail-driven short squeeze sent its stock price soaring.
The company officially launched its marketplace in July 2022 and became a top-ten NFT marketplace that summer, achieving $6 million in trading volume during its first two months.
However, this appeal was not sustained: in the past month, traffic to GameStop’s site amounted to approximately $40,000.
As part of its earlier push into NFTs, GameStop received funding from gaming layer-2 Immutable to establish a $100 million GameFi NFT fund. GameStop sold a large amount of tokens in that deal.
GameStop also merged with layer-2 platform Loopring.
Notably, Blockworks released a report this week stating that while NFT performance declined in 2023, gaming remains a promising area for future utility-focused NFT adoption. GameStop clearly disagrees with this outlook.
On Wednesday, Austin-based gaming platform Nifty Island launched the beta version of its open-world game. The game provides users with islands where they can experience 3D avatars of their NFT characters.
Nifty Island is one of the latest Web3 games attempting to bring utility to NFTs: allowing NFT holders to port their collections into a metaverse environment.
Following the game's release, Zunk, co-founder of Nifty Island, said on X: "Just like you wear your favorite shirt to express yourself in real life, or bring your lucky glove to play baseball with friends, I believe the same applies to gaming. We're on the cusp of a paradigm shift that will change how we play games."
Nifty Island’s Web3 open-world game launches shortly after Warner Bros. Discovery backed efforts to create a 'Ready Player One'-style metaverse—an idea once popular in crypto gaming but recently fallen out of favor.
An interesting data point: since early January, the floor price of Pudgy Penguins NFTs has nearly doubled, reaching an all-time high at around $47,000 per NFT.
Other notable mentions: Kevin Hart stars in the heist film "Lift," now streaming on Netflix, whose plot centers around a high-value NFT seller.
Additionally, Animoca Brands has partnered with Chess.com and world chess champion Magnus Carlsen to launch a strategy chess game called "Anichess."
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