The Rise and Fall of Gamestop | Design Club

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[music] >> Good time zone internet. Hello and welcome to Design Club, the only game design show on the internet that today is talking about something that's related to game design but isn't game design itself. I'm your humble host Will, joined as always by my pal Jeff.

Say hi to the people, Jeff. Hey everybody, I am Jeffrey Zakin, the studio director of Extra Credits and Extra History, but more importantly for this, I am our game designer in residence and resident Methuselah, since I'm even older than Will, which is important. We usually say my game design is more important to this

conversation. Today, my age. >> Yeah. >> is my strength today. >> That's That's right. Gather around young gamers of 2026.

You're >> [laughter] >> You youngks, Jeff and Will ARE GOING TO TELL YOU A TALE OF A MAGICAL PLACE, A MAGICAL PLACE called the GameStop. Now, um what >> Which used to be more magical than it is today.

>> Right, that's true. So, okay, we should probably explain. >> Actually, well, I I want to throw something down right at the beginning.

>> Yeah. >> For street cred. >> Yeah. >> A long time ago, GameStop had it. >> Yes. >> Like and that's where we're coming from because as we're kind of looking at like the rise and fall and where GameStop is now, this was once a place and we'll get to it shortly that actually had significant cred in the gamer community.

>> Yeah. Yeah, it did and it shaped a lot of gamer culture, right? >> Yes. >> Uh and the reason that we're talking about it now is a bunch of things, largely the CEO Ryan Cohen, and largely Ryan Cohen's obsession with buying eBay.

And why that Yeah. And why that has caused a uh uptick in people paying attention to GameStop, including us, and why I think it makes sense that he wants to buy GameStop.

And also, um what the how we got here. How the heck did we get here, right? How did we get to the place where GameStop is now 50% I I need everyone to understand this.

GameStop's market cap is about $10 billion, give or take, depending on when you're watching this. We're recording this towards the end of uh July 2026, if you're watching it.

>> Quick quick note, Will. What does market cap mean? >> Market cap is the total amount of value of stock in that company that's currently in the market.