Off the Grid: What's up with Web3 games?

Author: 0xjs@Jinse Finance

At a time when industry insiders criticized Web3 games for having only fi and no game, there was a Web3 game Off The Grid that quietly became popular.

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

Off The Grid has attracted more than 7 million players shortly after its launch. Since its release, Off the Grid has surpassed several other popular games on the Epic Games Store, consistently ranking as the most popular free PC game. This demonstrates the game’s popularity.

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.

In the past few years, Web3 games have not been very successful. This is because they are primarily based on Token rewards, which attract people to start playing games. The players’ goal is only to get rewards. After the early hype, the number of players has dropped sharply.

Unlike previous Web3 game developers, Gunzilla Games, the development company of Off The Grid, has the slogan “Play for fun, Play to Own”. It prioritizes high-quality gaming experience over token incentive mechanisms, placing “Play for fun” at the forefront. At the same time, it integrates Web3 into the game with “Play to Own”, compensating for the shortcomings of traditional games. Block chain is a supplement to the game, not the main driving force.

Off The Grid game: Cyberpunk Battle Royale + Player-Driven

Off The Grid, developed by Gunzilla Games, is based on the Avalanche public chain, integrating battle royale style with blockchain.

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

Teardrop Island

In addition to visual appeal and rich storylines, Off The Grid also integrates innovative gameplay with a social ecosystem. Off The Grid combines player vs. player (PvP) and player vs. environment (PvE) elements. Players can participate in 150-person PvP battles while also engaging in narrative-driven PvE missions that influence the game world. The game allows players to influence the storyline through their actions, adding role-playing elements to intense combat. Weapon customization and mechanical limb enhancements further deepen the gameplay.

Off the Grid will mint in-game assets such as weapons and skins on the Avalanche subnet GUNZ into Non-fungible Tokens, ensuring players’ ownership of these assets. This enables them to participate in the Secondary Market, making these items valuable not only in the game but also tradable.

In addition, the Web3 component of Off The Grid is optional. If it is a traditional player, it focuses on the battle royale game; if it is a Web3 game player, the Web3 assets in the game are transferable, which can bring profits to players, thus benefiting from the entire Web3 game economy.

Behind Off The Grid: Gunzilla Games and GUNZ

The developer behind Off The Grid is Gunzilla Games. Gunzilla Games, founded in 2020, 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, Kyiv, Ukraine, and London, UK. In March 2024, it received a $30 million investment from the Blizzard Fund under CoinFund and Avalanche.

Gunzilla Games’ powerful team 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, founding the game voice platform SONUS and the game social and matchmaking platform Plink.

Neill Blomkamp is another co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Gunzilla. He is a renowned director, screenwriter, producer, and visual effects artist. His classic sci-fi film ‘District 9’ was nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Visual Effects at the 82nd Academy Awards.

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

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

Timur Davidenko, he served as the Technical Director of CryEngine and participated in the development of Far Cry, Crysis, and Warface.

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 economic platform built on the Avalanche subnet.

The GUNZ subnet is customized to achieve a seamless gaming experience. GUN is the official Token of the GUNZ platform, which can be used for trading and purchasing items in the market. All in-game items can be traded on the GUNZ market, including weapons, character customization, hideout decorations, and upgrades.

Why is Off the Grid popular?

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

1. Focus on game fun rather than making money: Although many Web3 games focus on tokenomics and incentive models, the main success factor of Off the Grid lies in its focus on the fun of the game itself, while incorporating encryption elements.

2. Decentralization and Ownership: Besides the fun aspect, the core of Off The Grid’s Web3 experience is Non-fungible Token (NFT). Items like weapons, control enhancements, and skins in the game are all Non-fungible Tokens. This means that there is no central entity controlling the game or assets, allowing players to truly own their digital items and collectibles through the GUNZ platform. These items are stored on-chain, enabling players to freely buy, sell, or trade them outside of the game. This player-controlled game economy adds value to the time invested in the game, as items can be traded or sold to obtain cryptocurrency.

3. Optional on-chain functionality: Unlike previous Web3 games, Off the Grid makes Web3 components optional. Off the Grid players can fully enjoy the game without owning encryption assets, which means traditional gamers can play the game without any problems.

4. Smooth gaming experience: Despite using blockchain technology, Off The Grid still provides a gaming experience that is not compromised in quality or speed. Thanks to the Avalanche network, in-game transactions are fast and efficient, ensuring players enjoy uninterrupted gameplay. Additionally, gaming is a significant social activity, and Off The Grid is also a cross-platform game, offering cross-platform gaming on PlayStation and Xbox.

5. Powerful community operation: The Off The Grid community is very active, with many KOLs participating in game streaming. Off The Grid is the first web3 game to establish partnerships with well-known streamers such as Ninja and TimtheTatman.

**Ultimately, it is a return to the essence of gaming, “fun”, and the blockchain technology compensates for the “ownership” shortcomings of traditional games.

Conclusion

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

However, in the past few years, many Web3 games have failed because they have focused too much on the incentive of ‘tokenization’ and lost the essence of ‘fun’ in the game.

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

This once again proves that the Web3 game is still a promising industry.

Is Web3 gaming going to make it?