[GameSpot] - GameStop Gives Up On Crypto After One Year

[343iBot]

GameStop has announced that it'll be removing its iOS and Chrome extension crypto wallets from the market on November 1. This decision was due to regulatory uncertainty in the crypto space.

However, customers will still be able to access their funds. "We advise that all customers ensure that they have access to their Secret Passphrase by October 1, 2023," GameStop explained in a notice on its website. "Any customer with access to their Secret Passphrase has the ability to recover their account in any compatible wallet."

GameStop announced its venture into the NFT and crypto space back in May 2021 but started to scale back last year after the company didn't gain much traction with it. An analysis from Ars Technica last year reported that GameStop only made about $45,000 on the first day, which was a drop in the ocean compared to the company's overall 6 billion in net sales during its previous fiscal year.

The introduction of crypto into the gaming space has been quite controversial. Some studios such as Ubisoft jumped on the trend early, and others have recently reaffirmed their commitment to blockchain games like Square Enix.

However, many other studios have backed out. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said last year that it wasn't "driving hard" with NFTs, despite previously saying that it would become an important part of EA's future. Sega also recently pulled away from the crypto space after it revealed that it would only allow its smaller IP to be experimented on.

View the full article