<body><div>"If they manage to get this right by the time it leaves Early Access, I genuinely think this could be one of the BR games that bullies its way into the conversation with Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Warzone.” - TheTacticalBrit Despite over $19bn of funding since 2018, according to Game7’s “2023 State of Web3 Gaming Report”, web3 gaming has yet to produce a hit title that has convinced the average gamer that blockchain is a technology worth using. While we have seen signs of potential with Axie Infinity and Pixels alongside a slew of hypercasual Telegram games, it is safe to say the masses have not been onboarded as promised.That all may change with Off The Grid (OTG), a cyberpunk third-person battle royale shooter game marking the first blockchain game to be launched on console (Xbox and Playstation). It is developed by Gunzilla Games, a studio of over 130 gaming veterans from the likes of EA and Ubisoft, who have been patiently building for the last 5 years with the help of over $100m in funding from VCs such as Republic Capital and Blizzard Fund. With 500k new wallets and 2 million transactions in 24 hours, it is highly plausible OTG will be web3’s first hit game. OTG features a battle royale mode where 150 players are dropped onto dystopian “Teardrop Island”, where they find loot and trade items in the hopes of being the last man standing. The “cyberlimbs” system offers a unique dynamic to OTG’s gameplay where players equip limbs with a range of slick abilities that they either find across the map or shoot off of opponents. Alongside a modular weapon system capable of over 300 unique combinations, player verticality through jetpacks and zip lines, a highly interactive map, a bounty system and extraction features, the gameplay offers an immense depth unmatched in web3 gaming. While the battle royale genre remains insanely popular, a common drawback that prevents some shooter fans from fully engaging is the lack of narrative and storyline. OTG addresses this with a 60-hour single-player campaign written by Richard K. Morgan, the author of the Altered Carbon series, which has since been adapted into an award-winning Netflix show. However, what sets OTG apart from the rest of web3 gaming is the lack of user experience painpoints endemic to most web3 consumer applications. As opposed to having to set up and connect a wallet, deal with on and off-ramping, gas fees and frustrating NFT-gated elements, gamers can simply rely on previously established gaming norms of a free-to-play experience available on standard gaming platforms (console and PC) while blockchain elements are handled seamlessly in the background. While the project focuses on optimising the gaming experience first, enabling asset ownership remains a key objective for the Gunzilla team. In OTG, every asset a player finds on Teardrop Island is fully on-chain. In lieu of a company marketplace, the GUNZ platform has a P2P marketplace enabling the trading of such assets. Players can only earn assets from finding them in-game or buying them from another player. The GUNZ platform takes it a step further, setting the foundation for a much larger Gunzilla ecosystem allowing other developers to leverage the SDK and white-label components, allowing them to launch their own gaming projects on GUNZ, creating an interopable ecosystem of valuable in-game on-chain assets. In the background, 10,000 nodes will be operated by various individuals and organisations which will mint in-game items and be compensated accordingly. The team have nailed the web3 component in a few ways here. Firstly, the crypto elements remain entirely optional, allowing gamers who would otherwise dismiss the project to focus on the fun gameplay. Secondly, the lack of token before launch of the game allows the entire industry to receive this project as a legitimate game first with some blockchain functionality as opposed to one of the many web3 gaming projects which rely on cryptocurrency as a selling point. The lack of volatile pricing and implied valuation of the project means no one is distracted by the potential financialisation and instead assesses the product for its core merits. While they have potentially sacrificed capitalising on the significant mindshare it now has as the first web3 game on console, this represents the team’s longer-term bet on the future growth of the project and the entire GUNZ ecosystem. A success here is likely to provide a new blueprint for other web3 games going forward. Early access has launched on console and PC and the reception has been great so far, even by web2 standards. Firstly, interest has skyrocketed since its launch, with over 1 million hours watched across streaming platforms. As shown in Figure 1, interest in OTG is climbing after product launch as shown in Figure 1, relative to the typical web3 gaming project which suffers a rapid decline in interest and active users following its token launch. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3Ikpjb_0w8XIDck00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3Ikpjb_0w8XIDck00" width="1295" height="513" ><figcaption>Interest over time for "Off The Grid" search term relative to the typical web3 gaming project.</figcaption></figure>What is interesting is that the majority of those looking to learn about OTG are not concerned about the crypto element, as shown in Figure 2. The product-first, crypto-second marketing approach by Gunzilla has left gamers curious about gameplay and how they can play rather than being frustrated by the inclusion of blockchain. EVE Frontier, CCP’s long-awaited foray into blockchain gaming, has not even been able to achieve this separation, as evidenced by initial reactions from die-hard fans of the original EVE Online, as PC Gamer reports. A sentiment analysis of the comments on OTG’s Early Access Trailer released on 8th October 2024 reinforces this - only 5% of comments had any mention of crypto, blockchain or NFTs relative to 17% for EVE Frontier’s “Awake Eternally” teaser trailer (analysis as of 11th October 2024). Furthermore, most of the comments that mentioned such Web3 elements for OTG’s trailer were more inquisitive than dismissive. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2axcUZ_0w8XIDck00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2axcUZ_0w8XIDck00" width="490" height="426" ></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2ZSgCe_0w8XIDck00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2ZSgCe_0w8XIDck00" width="496" height="370" ><figcaption>Figure 2: Related queries for "Off The Gird" and "Eve Frontier" search terms.</figcaption></figure>With regard to the streaming world, OTG at one moment had 108k live viewers, trumping giants such as Dota 2, Valorant and Diablo IV. Aided by popular streamers such as Ninja and OpTic Scump, OTG is attaining highly positive and large-scale exposure at unparalleled levels for a web3 title. While there are some criticisms of certain gameplay mechanics, this can be expected for an early access launch and does not seemingly present any overly cumbersome issues. While it is early days, OTG’s launch is a landmark moment for the entire web3 gaming industry. As the first game given permission to penetrate mainstream distribution rails through console, it is reasonable to estimate its daily active users will eclipse current leading web3 games in both scale and sustainability. At this current rate, this might not just be the most successful web3 game, but the most successful web3 consumer application. Serge-Raymond Nzabandora is the Corporate Development and Finance Manager at Yield Guild Games, the largest web3 gaming guild network. Previously, he was an investment banker in London. He holds degrees from Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar and the University of Oxford. He is currently based in Hong Kong. </div></body>

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Could Off The Grid be the first game to change attitudes toward blockchain games?

\"If they manage to get this right by the time it leaves Early Access, I genuinely think this could be one of the BR games that bullies its way into the conversation with Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Warzone.” - TheTacticalBrit. Despite over $19bn of funding since 2018, according to...

"If they manage to get this right by the time it leaves Early Access, I genuinely think this could be one of the BR games that bullies its way into the conversation with Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Warzone.” - TheTacticalBrit. Despite over $19bn of funding since 2018, according to...

Could Off The Grid be the first game to change attitudes toward blockchain games?

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