Off the Grid: The First Web3 Game to Hit Mainstream Media

How Off the Grid Brings Thrilling Gameplay, Seamless Blockchain Integration, and Console Accessibility to the World of Web3 Gaming

Off the Grid, a third-person extraction shooter by Gunzilla Games, created a significant buzz in the gaming industry by reaching the masses. As the FIRST web3 game to launch on Playstation and Xbox, Off the Grid is paving the way for the future of gaming studios interested in utilizing blockchain technology. With over 12 million user sign-ups, the game has set the standard for what a "crypto game" should be. After five years of development, Gunzilla Games officially launched Off the Grid on October 8 of last year.

Since its launch, Gunzilla Games has consistently delivered updates and achieved significant milestones, solidifying its position as the leading Web3 game in the industry. The company is also finalizing its own Layer 1 deployment, emphasizing that Avalanche is "the only blockchain that allowed [them] to do the really, really crazy things [they] wanted to do to enhance the user experience" (Theodore Agranat, Director of Web3, Gunzilla Games). Gunzilla Games is not just competing with blockchain games—they’re competing with the entire gaming industry.

Let’s explore the success of Off the Grid and how they achieved it.

The Game

Off the Grid currently features one core game mode: Extraction Royale. Squads of three dive into an expansive battle royale map and fight to be the last team standing. The unique twist? All players are equipped with cybernetic arms and legs, which can be replaced with weaponized limbs by opening chests scattered throughout the map. The game offers a variety of cyberlimbs, each with unique abilities such as firing stink bombs, phosphorus grenades, rockets, and more! This cyberlimb mechanic, in addition to traditional weapons, gives the game a competitive edge over classic battle royales. Players can customize their playstyles to compete for the coveted number-one spot!

Another standout feature of the game is hexes—small cubes of varying rarities that players can discover by opening chests across the map. These hexes can be extracted by depositing them in vaults located in various areas. Once successfully extracted, players can open the hexes in the lobby screen to receive in-game items such as weapons, weapon skins, character cosmetics, attachments, or cyberlimbs. All items can be used in-game or sold in Off the Grid's in-game marketplace.

Going Mainstream

Following its public playtest launch, Off the Grid attracted some of the largest streamers and content creators in the industry. Renowned creators such as Shroud, TimTheTatman, Ninja, and others showcased the game's dynamic gameplay to thousands of viewers across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter. The game achieved impressive milestones, including 120,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch and over 500,000 daily active users within its first month.

In addition to these achievements, Off the Grid received widespread recognition in awards and media coverage following its launch. In 2024, it won four titles at the GAM3S.GG Awards: Best Shooter Game, Best Action Game, Best Multiplayer Game, and Game of the Year. Shortly after, GGDecrypt also named Off the Grid as Game of the Year. As 2024 drew to a close, Rolling Stone, one of the leading magazines in the United States, included Off the Grid in its top 10 best games to play during the holidays.

Web3 Integration

All items found in hexes within the game are actually NFTs that can be bought and sold in Off the Grid’s marketplace. In addition to extracting items from the battle royale mode, players can acquire items through Twitch drops, event rewards, and the purchasable battle pass. Essentially, any item in a player’s inventory can be exchanged in the marketplace for $GUN, Off the Grid’s native token, which is set to launch alongside their own Layer 1 blockchain. Although the $GUN token is not yet live, it is poised to serve as the backbone of Off the Grid’s economy, acting as the primary currency for marketplace transactions. Additionally, $GUN will function as the native token for all projects built on Gunzilla Games' Layer 1, fostering an interconnected and immersive economy across the ecosystem.

One of the key differences between Off the Grid’s marketplace and traditional Web2 marketplaces is asset ownership. The marketplace economy is entirely user-driven, granting players full ownership of their items. Players can freely buy and sell their assets, with Off the Grid taking only a small percentage of transaction fees. This creates a more balanced economy, encouraging players to engage actively since the revenue model is not one-sided, where the game collects all profits.

The Future of Off The Grid

Gunzilla games still has two huge milestones to complete: the launch of their own layer one backed by $GUN and the launch of the official game. With no public date set, the Gunzilla team is still continuously delivering content and updates to the game while taking player feedback into consideration. Although they’re still considered to be in the testing phases, Off the Grid has created murmurs across the entire gaming ecosystem by hitting so many substantial milestones while being a game backed by blockchain technology, specifically Avalanche.

One of the key takeaways from Off the Grid’s model is building out a user experience that caters to both web2 and web3 users. New users “don’t have to set up a wallet, [they] do not have to swap any tokens, [they] don’t have to on/off ramp any fiat”, and all of this was done successfully by partnering and building with Avalanche (Theodore Agranat). By creating a system that works, Off the Grid has paved the way for the future of Web3 gaming.

If you’re interested in playing Off the Grid, the game is available for download on the Xbox and PlayStation stores, or on Epic Games for PC. For more information, visit their main website: https://gameoffthegrid.com/

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