GameStop Considers Bitcoin Investment Amid Crypto Resurgence

This week in the crypto gaming space, there were several significant developments that caught the attention of enthusiasts and investors alike. One of the most notable events was the announcement by GameStop, the iconic video game retailer, that it is considering investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This news comes after the company's stock, GME, saw a significant rise from $26 to nearly $31 on Thursday. GameStop had previously taken a step into the Web3 world with the launch of an NFT marketplace and associated crypto wallet, but ultimately shut it down in early 2024. If the CNBC report is accurate, we may be seeing GameStop reconsider its crypto ventures now that the regulatory future looks brighter in the United States, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Another exciting development this week was the launch of Balance.fun, an extension of the E-Pal platform that offers AI agent gaming companions. These AI agents can coach and support players via a chatbox while they play their favorite video games. The project is set to launch an Ethereum token later this year, in late Q1 2025. Users can customize their AI agent's personality by assigning it hobbies, jobs, and other traits, as well as selecting the character's appearance. The agents use reinforcement learning, which means they learn based on the reward or punishment that comes after an action. This allows them to provide gameplay advice driven by raw data, although they lack the emotional aspect of a human companion.

In other news, Ethereum gaming network Ronin has officially gone permissionless, allowing anyone to build on the blockchain. Sky Mavis, the creator of Ronin, has released the Ronin Developer Console as a toolkit to help those building on the network. The console lets developers offer sponsored transactions, so users can dodge gas fees, and provides smart contract templates, among other features. Sky Mavis CEO and co-founder Trung Nguyen described this move as the dawn of Ronin's golden age, which will accelerate growth and unlock more games, DeFi applications, and dApps than ever before.

As part of the Open Ronin announcement, Pirate Nation developer Proof of Play said that the game is expanding from Arbitrum to Ronin, with a Ronin NFT mint planned ahead. Additionally, Ethereum NFT project Goblintown revealed its upcoming PC and Mac game, Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game,