Off the Grid: Is Web3 gaming a thing?

Written by: 0xjs@黄金财经

While industry insiders criticized Web3 games for only having fi but no game, a Web3 game Off The Grid quietly became popular.

Off The Grid was released in Early Access on October 8, 2024, and players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC can access it through the Epic Games Store.

Off The Grid attracted more than 7 million players shortly after its launch. Since its release, Off the Grid has beaten several other popular games on the Epic Games Store and has been at the top of the list of the most popular free PC games. This shows the popularity of this game.

Off The Grid is of great significance to the Web3 gaming industry. Because this game is not only a 3A-level game, it also represents a paradigm shift in Web3 gaming.

Web3 games have not been very successful in the past few years. Because they are mainly based on token reward rewards to attract people to start playing games. The purpose of players is just to get rewards. After the early hype, the number of players dropped sharply.

Unlike previous Web3 game developers, Off The Grid developer Gunzilla Games’ slogan is “Play for fun, Play to Own”. It puts Play for fun first, giving priority to quality game fun rather than token incentives. At the same time, Web3 is integrated into the game Play to Own to make up for the shortcomings of traditional games. Blockchain is a supplement to the game, not the main driving force.

Off The Grid Game: Cyberpunk Battle Royale + Player Driven

Off The Grid was developed by Gunzilla Games and is based on the Avalanche public chain, integrating the Battle Royale style with the blockchain.

The game is set on the fictional Teardrop Island, taking players into a cyberpunk dystopian world where survival requires not only combat skills but also strategic decision-making.

Teardrop Island

In addition to its visual appeal and rich storyline, Off The Grid blends innovative gameplay with a social ecosystem. Off The Grid combines player versus player (PvP) and player versus environment (PvE) elements. Players can engage in 150-player PvP battles while taking part in narrative-driven PvE quests that affect the game world. The game allows players to influence the storyline through their actions, which adds a role-playing element to the high-intensity combat. Weapon customization and mechanical limb enhancements further deepen the gameplay.

Off the Grid mints in-game assets such as weapons and skins as NFTs on the Avalanche subnet GUNZ, which ensures players' ownership of these assets. This enables them to participate in secondary markets, making these items not only valuable in the game, but also tradable.

In addition, Off The Grid's Web3 component is optional. If you are a traditional player, you can focus on the battle royale game; if you are a Web3 game player, the in-game Web3 assets are transferable and can bring profits to players, thereby benefiting from the entire Web3 game economy.

Behind Off The Grid: Gunzilla Games and GUNZ

The developer behind Off The Grid is Gunzilla Games. Founded in 2020, Gunzilla Games is an independent AAA game developer dedicated to developing the next generation of battle royale games. It is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, with offices in Los Angeles, USA, Kiev, Ukraine, and London, UK. In March 2024, it received $30 million in financing from CoinFund and Blizzard Fund under Avalanche.

The strong team of Gunzilla Games is a major factor in the popularity of Off The Grid.

Gunzilla Games was co-founded by CEO Vlad Korolov and CSO Alexander Zoll, both of whom are serial entrepreneurs who founded the game voice platform SONUS and the game social and matching platform Plink.

Another co-founder and chief creative officer of Gunzilla is Neill Blomkamp. He is a famous director, screenwriter, producer and visual effects artist. The classic science fiction film "District 9" directed by him was nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Visual Effects.

Other members of the Gunzilla team come from industry-leading studios and publishers including Ubisoft, Electronic Arts (EA), Blizzard Entertainment, THQ, etc., such as:

Richard K. Morgan, the author of the Altered Carbon series, which was later adapted into an award-winning Netflix show;

Timur Davidenko, who served as technical director of CryEngine and participated in the development of Far Cry, Warfront and Crysis.

GUNZ is the blockchain platform that supports Gunzilla Games' battle royale game Off The Grid. Gunzilla Games announced the launch of the GUNZ subnet on April 5, 2023. GUNZ is an innovative and sustainable blockchain digital economy platform built on the Avalanche subnet.

The GUNZ subnet is customized to enable a seamless gaming experience, and GUN is the official token of the GUNZ platform, which can be used to trade and purchase items on the market. All in-game items can be traded on the GUNZ market, and assets include weapons, character customization, hideout decorations and improvements.

Why is Off the Grid so popular?

In summary, the key factors for Off The Grid's success are:

1. Focus on game fun rather than making money: While many Web3 games focus on token economics and incentive models, the main success factor of Off the Grid is that it focuses on the fun of the game itself while incorporating crypto elements.

2. Decentralization and ownership: In addition to fun, the core of Off The Grid's Web3 experience is NFT. Items such as weapons, control enhancements, and skins in the game are all NFTs. This means that there is no central entity controlling the game or assets, which also enables players to truly own their own digital items and collectibles through the GUNZ platform. These items are stored on the blockchain, allowing players to freely buy, sell or trade them outside of the game. This player-controlled game economy adds a layer of value to the time invested in the game, as items can be traded or sold with other players in exchange for cryptocurrency.

3. Optional on-chain features: Unlike previous Web3 games, Off the Grid makes the Web3 component optional. Off the Grid players can fully enjoy the fun of the game without owning crypto assets, which means that traditional game users can play the game without any problems.

4. Smooth gaming experience: Despite the use of blockchain, Off The Grid still provides a gaming experience that does not compromise on quality or speed. Thanks to the Avalanche network, in-game transactions are fast and efficient, ensuring players have an uninterrupted experience. At the same time, gaming is an important social activity, and Off The Grid is also a cross-platform game, offering cross-platform play on PlayStation and Xbox.

5. Strong community operation: Off The Grid community is very active, and many KOLs participate in game live broadcasts. Off The Grid is the first web3 game to establish a cooperative relationship with well-known anchors such as Ninja and TimtheTatman.

In the final analysis, it is a return to the essence of the game "fun", and blockchain technology makes up for the "ownership" defects of traditional games.

Conclusion

The crypto industry generally regards Web3 games as one of the main crypto use cases.

However, in the past few years, many Web3 games have failed because they focused too much on "tokenization" incentives and lost the essential "fun" of the game.

Off the Grid has not only succeeded as a Web3 game. Even compared with traditional games, it can be said to have achieved great success.

This once again proves that Web3 games are still a promising industry.

Web3 games are going to be successful?