The photo was taken by Sean Hollister.
Video game retailer and meme stock darling, GameStop, is making a big bet on NFTs and cryptocurrencies. A new report from The Wall Street Journal states that the company has built up a strong team of over 20 people to work on an online marketplace for virtual items.
The company is trying to get game developers and publishers to list NFTs on its marketplace, and is also trying to get deals with companies to develop the underlying technology and help invest in games featuring NFT. According to the WSJ, GameStop has investments in over a dozen other companies and could be in the tens of millions.
A person for the company did not respond to the request for comment.
There were job listings at a store.
The plans are thought to be part of a plan to turn around the company, which has been hit hard by the shift of consumers to buying games online. In December, the company's chief executive Matt Furlong said that the company was exploring emerging technologies, and job listings relating to Web3 and NFTs previously emerged.
According to the WSJ, people who like to spend money on virtual goods are seen as potential early adopters of NFTs. The technology has been publicly explored by Square Enix andEA, and the NFT platform was launched by Ubisoft last year.
The response from the gaming community to in-game NFTs has been hostile, with many seeing them as being of little value to the overall experience, and representing a marketing exercise by companies that have for years been happy to sell virtual items without the need for the use of theBlockchain technology The developer of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl walked away from its plans after they were widely panned.
The WSJ report comes roughly a year after a trading frenzy broke out when some day traders tried to boost the share price of GameStop. The company is in poor financial shape despite the investment and attempts at a revival. It reported last month that its losses were widening. CNBC reports that the company's share price rose by 22 percent after the WSJ reported on its plans.
