GameStop Fires Game Informer Staff As It Doubles Down On NFTs And The Blockchain

GameStop has started another large round of layoffs yesterday, which included its own CFO being fired, with reports of upwards of 150 employees being let go, including key staff at Game Informer, the beleaguered magazine and website which has already been the target of cuts before this.

All of this is in the service of GameStop’s new plan to invest big into an increasingly unstable space, web3, the blockchain and NFTs.

The blockchain was the main focus of a leaked internal memo sent out by CEO Matt Furlong:

“Change will be a constant as we evolve our commerce business and launch new products through our blockchain group…These changes will enable us to operate in a profitable manner as we execute against our strategy of pursuing sales growth in our commerce business and launching new products that empower customers within the digital asset and web3 gaming verticals.”

GameStop has launched its own crypto wallet and is planning to launch an NFT marketplace just as NFT trading volume has fallen by around 90% in recent months, according to some reports. GameStop seems to think the same kinds of people who made it a “meme stock” will go big on the web3 concept, though all of this seems very divorced from what used to be the core concept of the company, a store that sells video games with value-added assets like an enthusiast magazine. It also seems a bit like diving headfirst into a pool that has just been almost entirely drained of water.

The tweets from Game Informer staff have been pretty heartbreaking to see over the course of the past day as their jobs are sacrificed in pursuit of this nebulous blockchain dream:

It’s unknown how much of Game Informer remains, as it was already cut down before this during earlier layoffs. Besides GI and the CFO, reports are that entire teams like Data Integrity Approval team have been let go.

Given that GameStop effectively seemed like the video game version of Blockbuster as everything switched to digital, their continued survival has been something of a continued miracle over the last decade as they pivot and pivot and pivot to try to retain some semblance of relevance. It feels like just yesterday there was some sort of grand plan announced to make stores a destination for in-person gaming and esports, now, it’s a huge investment in the blockchain, which seems like an even riskier prospect.

It feels ill-advised to predict GameStop’s imminent doom, given how they’ve managed to survive this long. But at the same time it also feels ill-advised for GameStop to believe crypto and NFTs are going to be their saving grace given the current realities of those quickly unraveling markets. We’ll see what happens.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.