Fresh off a $30 million strategic token raise, Gunzilla Games is making a big move with the launch of blockchain-powered genre-defying game Off The Grid (OTG), a story-driven third-person shooter battle royale.
The game is expected to release on Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5, and PC later this year, taking a remixed free-to-play approach while also offering digital collectibles powered by NFTs.
Gunzilla Games, the team behind OTG, is comprised of several gaming industry veterans, notably the creators of CRYENGINE (the game engine that powers the Far Cry series) and Warface (an online shooter that has attracted over 150 million players over its lifetime).
One that holds the world record for most concurrent players on a single server for a shooter game, the team also includes Oscar-nominated film director Neill Blomkamp as Chief Creative Officer, known for directing feature films District 9, Elysium, Gran Turismo, and CHAPPiE.
Gunzilla leverages its expertise in building popular shooters and scaling them to hundreds of millions of players to innovate on the standard battle royale shooter with an entirely new business model, engaging new features, a strong narrative component, and NFT-backed collectibles.
As Head of Customer Experience Theo Agranat told OpenSea in a recent interview: “The team is ready for the biggest battle royale game on the market.”
How Off The Grid plans to stand out in a crowded market
The battle royale genre is dominated by major titles such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Warzone, Overwatch, and Call of Duty, so OTG faces a huge challenge to succeed and thrive in such a competitive vertical.
Almost all major games in the battle royale genre adopt a free-to-play (F2P) approach, typically monetizing through the sale of limited-time in-game cosmetics and battle passes, which often unlock game content through a progression system.
With the battle royale game market size (by revenue) expected to reach $23.1 billion by 2031 and reach hundreds of millions of players, the OTG team saw room to carve out a niche and bring new players into the fold with a unique approach.
In terms of gameplay, Agranat revealed that the game will feature one of the largest maps of any battle royale game, with the ability to host up to 150 players online simultaneously and the ability to determine the location of ever-changing borders that constantly restrict gameplay to smaller areas.
Players will be dropped onto Teardrop Island, a mile-sized battlefield fought over by three factions, where each player can collect and equip cybernetic limbs that provide specific abilities and upgrades, such as legs that increase speed or jumping or arms that enhance speed or jumping.
These cybernetic limbs can be shot off opponents or stolen from defeated opponents, allowing players to build up their collection during combat.
The team has put a lot of thought into OTG’s storyline in hopes of engaging players through storytelling, with the game promising over 60 hours of narrative telling both sides of the intriguing central conflict at the heart of the game.
Additionally, Gunzilla intends to release a short film produced by Blomkamp every six months to advance the game’s narrative.
The team hopes that the special focus on OTG storytelling will attract players, who Gunzilla’s research shows are more emotionally invested in games with a strong central narrative and often turn away from battle royale games.
Another departure from the norm for battle royale games: OTG will only sell battle passes directly to players, and in-game items can only be obtained by collecting them in-game or purchasing them from a secondary NFT marketplace operated by Gunzilla, which will be integrated with OpenSea in the coming weeks.
The company will only monetize through fees and direct sales of battle passes on a secondary NFT marketplace, where players will need to list their items for sale.
There are also plans to host sponsorship events through partnerships with major brands, as Agranat said: “Brands always want to advertise to an audience they know, and through us, they will get a lot of information and build relationships with our player base.”
Learn how Off The Grid is on the blockchain
OTG was developed to run on GUNZ, a blockchain built on a subnet of the Avalanche blockchain that will be integrated with OpenSea in the coming weeks. Its currency is the GUN token, which is used to buy and sell in-game items.
In an upcoming release, players will be able to use OpenSea to buy and sell OTG items using GUN tokens.
In-game items tagged as NFTs will include weapons, clothing, bionic body parts, and cosmetics for player characters, which players can add to their collections by purchasing NFTs from secondary NFT marketplaces, finding NFTs organically on the battlefield, or acquiring NFTs from defeated enemies.
“We expect to drop tens of millions of NFTs into the game every year,” Agranat said. “Everything will be tokenized so you can own it and trade it with other players. The game will have millions of players, so we expect there will be a lot of trading, sometimes for really useful or rare items, sometimes to buy basic items when you’re low on funds.”
Players initially enter the game with a basic pistol as a weapon, leading them to seek out “Hex” items, which are boxes containing NFT-backed game items, making it feel like a seamless loot-and-shoot battle royale for traditional gamers.
For gamers who support web3, they’ll be building a potentially valuable collection, which Agranat says they can one day lend out to other players — perhaps for a fee.
“How many times have you been playing a live service game and wanted to show off a specific skin in a tournament, but there was nowhere to buy it?” Agranat asked. “There is a viable in-game item borrowing marketplace, and we’re incorporating that into Off The Grid.”
How OTG is leveraging NFTs in console gaming
Without relying on any concerted marketing efforts, the OTG team has amassed over 550,000 wallet addresses through the game’s companion mobile app and waiting list, relying primarily on hype and word-of-mouth marketing.
“In terms of the game, we’ve grown our roster completely organically through word of mouth, and we’re ready to launch in beta later this year without spending a ton of money on marketing or advertising to achieve this milestone,” Agranat said.
Only one question remained: How would a fully on-chain gaming experience translate for those who play the game on console? As Agranat described it, that’s not a problem.
OTG has built its business model and technology stack to accommodate its marketplace operating across different ecosystems: consoles, mobile apps, the web, and OpenSea, where secondary transactions where players buy and sell game items from each other do not face commissions from consoles.
“On consoles, GUN tokens are just another in-game currency,” Agranat said. “Console platforms are independent of blockchain transactions, so they only see game items move around and points go up and down.”
What’s next for OTG?
OTG is expected to enter beta in 2024, and with hundreds of thousands of gamers waiting for the upcoming game, those interested in the game can add it to their wishlist on Xbox Series S|X and Playstation 5.
GUNZ Chain will also soon integrate with OpenSea, opening up the availability of OTG merchandise to a wide range of NFT collectors.
“Our ultimate goal is to reach 100 million players within a year of launch,” said Agranat. “With a best-in-class team, a unique battle royale game, and a seamless on-chain game economy, we are confident in the future of Off The Grid.”
#GUN #OTG #Gunzilla #NFT #OpenSea
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