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The biggest trend in gaming isn’t live-service or open-world games. No, the hottest move anyone in the gaming industry is making is, unfortunately, to close up shop and lay people off. GameStop, which has been a major player on the retail side of gaming for years, is embracing this trend by closing a “significant number” of its remaining stores in the coming months. To make matters worse, they have a worrying new plan on how to make money.

GameStop has already closed over 1000 locations around the world in the past year, with more than half of them being in the US, so the announcement that they will be closing even more stores in 2025 certainly feels like another nail in their corporate coffin. However, it wasn’t the most unusual thing about the regulatory filing last week – even as they close stores and, presumably, put people out of a job, GameStop is talking about shifting their investments toward bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

We can understand the move to close stores. We don’t like it but business is business and GameStop has long struggled to maintain relevancy in a world where more games are purchased digitally every year. However, the shift toward crypto investments feels like a desperate gasp to make money in the face of dwindling investment and plummeting sales. Because if there has been one thing that has made for a stable investment in the past couple of years, it is... bitcoin? (Please, notice the sarcasm.)

Unsurprisingly, GameStop hasn’t identified which stores are at risk of closing, but it is pretty clear that the company is in the midst of a difficult couple of years that they may not have a good way out of. 

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

• All upcoming games in 2025 and beyond
• Gamify My Life, our weekly gaming column designed
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• How to play every GTA game in order
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And be sure to check Popverse regularly for the latest gaming news.