World’s largest video game merchandise retailer GameStop is all set to launch a non fungible token marketplace for gamers by the end of 2021. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company is planning to build an online hub for trading NFTs for virtual game collectibles and establish cryptocurrency partnerships.
NFTs, which use blockchain to record the ownership of digital items such as images and videos, surged in popularity in 2021, leaving many confused about why so much money was being spent on copiable digital items that do not physically exist.
According to Per Decrypt, a cryptocurrency news portal, job listings put out by the company in 2021 indicated that the company was looking for “exceptional engineers, designers, gamers and marketers” to come aboard an Ethereum-based NFT project.
The company’s NFT platform will facilitate customers to buy, sell and trade NFTs of video game items, including clothes, weapons and characteristics of the various player avatars.
GameStop Corp’s stock rallied on Friday after the videogame retailer’s plan to expand its NFTs marketplace and partner with crypto firms, surfaced online, Reuters reported Saturday.
This development comes weeks after Ubisoft the company announced a new platform, Ubisoft Quartz, where it will offer NFTs that it’s calling Digits. Ubisoft Quartz will be launched first in the PC version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint and will offer unique cosmetic items on offer as NFTs. Digits will represent unique, collectibles such as in-game vehicles, weapons, and pieces of equipment.
Meanwhile, NFTs are breaking new records in the cryptocurrency world. People have spent over $9 billion in NFT sales. Interestingly, not just collectors or investors, but Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Sunny Leone are also jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.
Amitabh Bachchan’s recently launched NFTs which included his autographed vintage posters, a recital of his father’s famous poem Madhushala, were sold for roughly Rs 7.18 crore ($966,000). And bollywood fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s NFT series of 5 digital sketches was sold for roughly Rs 2.8 lakh.
