How “Off-Grid” Could Impact the Future of Blockchain Gaming

AvalancheBattle Royale shooter game based on Off-grid has seen mainstream success that we’ve never seen before in crypto gaming. Third-person shooter quickly became the best free-to-play title on the Epic Games Store last month, as the Early Access rollout attracted a crowd of traditional gamers, some of whom may be more open to Web3 than before.

But what made the big launch a crypto gaming success, and how could Off the Grid’s unique approach impact how future blockchain games attempt to reach gamers?

Most industry experts who Decrypt Interviewees attributed Off the Grid’s success to the “gaming first” approach that some cryptocurrency builders have been praising for some time. This is when a title focuses first and foremost on delivering quality gameplay, rather than leading with crypto and NFT elements and waiting for those features – and associated financialization – to attract the players.

“This validates our ‘game first’ approach,” Hans Andersson, CBO and co-founder of Moonray Studios, the creators of the Ethereum battle arena game. Moonbeamsaid Decrypt. “To achieve broad adoption, you need to focus on the player and what brings value to them. The gaming experience must be at the center.

Off the Grid’s gameplay was the center of attention when it launched in Early Access, with tons of clips going viral on social media, showcasing the battle royale game’s unique mechanics compared to genre heavyweights like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone.

In fact, it took a while for players to realize that it was a Web3 game. While some gamers were offended by the idea of ​​using cryptography in a video game, others, including former professionals, Counter-strike the player Michael “Wrap” Grzesiek — said they were starting to think about a NFT item market.

“We appreciate that they were able to show that you can deliver a powerful game and rise above the noise,” Robert Bowling, studio director of Midnight Society, creator of the pull-out shooter. Deadsaid Decrypt. “We love to see them succeed in attracting top players and championing a game-first mentality.”

While this approach may seem obvious, it contrasts with what crypto games are historically known for. Film producer Marco Weber, co-founder of science fiction IP Space Nation-which includes an Ethereum game -recently said Decrypt that when he first entered the crypto gaming industry, he was alarmed by how much “shit» there was there.

For example, Pixelmon has raised $70 million in 2022 by selling NFTs, promising to deliver a Pokémon-style game that could improve on Nintendo’s classic formula with the benefits of blockchain.

But when the NFT’s artwork was revealed shortly afterward, sparking widespread backlash, the game’s founder admitted it was a “horrible mistake”, and it became a punchline for the industry. After this miserable start, Pixelmon was bought by another company and completely reworked – with new artwork – to breathe new life into it and overcome the initial embarrassment.

Until now, part of the crypto gaming mentality has been to “build in the open”, allowing a game’s community to provide insight and help shape the game being built.

While this fits with the decentralized philosophy of the crypto industry, it is not ideally suited for game development. This is partly responsible for the bad attention the industry has attracted, as games rake in millions of dollars just to launch an incomplete product – or never launch at all.

“Thousands of Web3 games have been announced, and few teams are actually capable of delivering them,” said Nicolas Pouard, vice president of Ubisoftof the strategic innovation laboratory and responsible for the Blockchain initiative. Ubisoft, the company behind Assassin’s Creed and other major gaming brands, is the largest publisher in the crypto space.

Granted, incomplete, and buggy game launches are not exclusive to the crypto world. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example of a huge “AAA” game that launched in a terrible state, attracting horrible reviews and even be removed from certain markets. It took years of additional development for developer CD Projekt Red to live up to the game’s promised vision.

Instead of launching a very early release, Off the Grid operated in a closed testing phase under strict NDA until it was deemed ready for public review. Despite this, the released version was criticized for poor optimization on PC, as well as some less polished gameplay elements. But the “early access” tag provides some wiggle room for the rough edges.

Pouard, an executive at one of the largest and most successful game publishers in the world, knows well how difficult it is to launch a game, let alone a good one.

“It’s very, very difficult, very hard work, to build a game and be able to finish it, polish it and deliver it to players in the right way.” Ubisoft’s Pouard told Decrypt. “Web3 adds something even more difficult, because it adds uncertainty. This adds polarized opinion to this topic.

This may be why Gunzilla Games, the developer of Off the Grid, chose not to highlight cryptographic elements in the initial release of the game.

While the GUNZ network testnet based on Gunzilla’s Avalanche operates behind the scenes, the future crypto token and NFT element items are not in play. Instead of getting distracted by the polarizing nature of crypto gaming, players have focused on its engaging gameplay.

“Game quality and core gameplay loops are absolutely essential and should guide every development decision,” said Rebecca Liao, CEO and co-founder of blockchain network Saga. “The Web3 gaming industry went through several hype cycles releasing games that were essentially token distribution mechanics with thin veneers of gameplay.”

On the other hand, Telegram tap to win attracted games hundreds of millions of players This year. However, skeptics have criticized the genre’s simplistic gameplay, driven by tossing a future token. airdrop in front of the players. None of these games have managed to build a significant following after giving away tokens, because they simply don’t have much to offer otherwise.

Despite the criticism, this wave of crypto games has undoubtedly attracted a large audience in the Web3 world due to the low barrier to entry: a mobile phone and the Telegram app.

Another potential way to attract such a crowd is to release your title to major consoles, as well as the largest PC gaming platform, Steam. Off the Grid is on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but crypto features are not yet integrated. And Steam has rigid anti-crypto restrictions that developers have sometimes had to compromise to get around.

“The majority of gamers are on platforms such as PlayStation, Xbox and Steam“, added Moonray’s Andersson, “How any of these platforms integrate crypto will have a huge impact on how widely blockchain games can be adopted.

As mentioned, Off the Grid currently does not have crypto or NFT functionality, and makers of Moonray recently confirmed that their upcoming PlayStation 5 version won’t have its usual crypto features at launch. This is a major hurdle for the industry that has yet to be overcome.

Significant challenges remain before crypto games can truly reach the mainstream, but even in its Early Access state, Off the Grid already feels like a sea change for the industry. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but the viral success of the battle royale shooter and its approach to gaming could bode well for the industry going forward.

“Poor execution can damage confidence,” Liao said. Decrypt, “But thoughtful integration that actually improves the player experience will help bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 gaming and demystify some poorly understood blockchain gaming elements.“.

Edited by Andrew Hayward