Gamestop in Germany: Return through the back door?

Gamestop is long gone in Germany. However, a managing director from a corporate partnership has now announced an interesting innovation that could at least affect Gamestop fans here.

GameStop is now focusing on its business in the United States. Fans in Germany learned this the hard way with the company's complete withdrawal from the country. The business model has already changed significantly. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has invested a portion of his capital in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin – and a strong pillar of the former video game retailer's sales now lies in the trading card segment. There's some interesting news there.

Gamestop: Cooperation with PSA

Video games are no longer GameStop's core business – changes in the market, including the rise of downloads, have put the retailer under pressure in recent years. However, all signs now point to economic recovery. One key success factor is the strategy that GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen is pursuing for his company: a lucrative future could lie in the retro sector and the trading card segment. Especially in the latter area, GameStop could establish a new foothold with courage and innovation. According to estimates, the trading card market will be worth almost eight billion US dollars in 2025 – and by 2030, this figure is expected to rise to over eleven billion US dollars.

Gamestop has had a foot in the door since last year through its cooperation with the grading company PSA. The announcement of the partnership with a company that plays a leading role in the grading and authentication of trading cards initially caused a stir. The processes have since become more streamlined: Customers in the United States can drop off or send in their trading cards to Gamestop for grading. The TCG scene is booming – and the former video game retailer is now a central topic of conversation here, too.

A much more relevant innovation is a relatively new development: Gamestop, together with Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA), has launched a digital collectible platform. Users can purchase "Power Packs" containing pre-graded trading cards of varying value. The idea is simple yet ingenious: customers open the packs, and with a bit of luck, they'll find a valuable card worth more than the purchase price of the pack tier. The card can then be resold directly—there's even a link to eBay—or stored in a virtual safe, or the physical equivalent of the digitally drawn card can be shipped to their home for a fee. The packs are available in five price tiers ($25, $50, $100, $500, $1.000). The project's Early Access phase is available exclusively in the USA.

And what does this have to do with Germany? A bit of "hopium" is needed here. PSA CEO Nat Turner recently announced on the "X" platform that Professional Sports Authenticators will offer full grading in Germany in 2026. This is quite remarkable, as there has been no official information on this so far. Because PSA is collaborating with Gamestop on the Power Packs to offer a joint product, one might assume that the "Power Packs" will sooner or later be offered not only in the United States, but on a more global market. Rumor has it that the concept, combining digital and physical trading cards, will also find its way onto the blockchain – although this hasn't been officially confirmed, the idea is still plausible.

So, if PSA were to conquer the German and possibly European market, expanding from pure grading to the sale of Power Packs could be a logical step. This would then also mark GameStop's return to Germany, albeit in a completely different way than fans have known it so far. However, it would then at least be possible that online sales, for example of trading card products, would become available again – perhaps the withdrawal from Germany was not final. However, we will have to wait for announcements from the companies on this matter.

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