Off The Grid's first PS5 playtest

Debut console blockchain shooter gearing up

At the tailend of 2023, I bought an Xbox in anticipation of console-bound shooter Off The Grid.

It wasn’t a totally random act as Off The Grid had then been listed on the Xbox game store.

However, Off The Grid has just had its opening weekend test on … PlayStation 5. Doh!

According to Avalanche’s X, over 30,000 players got in on the action, generating around 400,000 transactions on the game’s custom Avalanche-based GUNZ blockchain as they claimed their various freebies in the process.

For those interested, here’s the PlayStation Store page listing.

When the game will be actually released isn’t yet known but it seems like it will be the first blockchain-enabled title on a console, which will make it an interesting testcase in terms of all the buzzwords blockchain games typically struggle with such as onboarding, wallet management, key recovery, fiat onramps and crypto-to-fiat offramps… etc.

Indeed, Off The Grid will be much more interesting in terms of how its blockchain elements are integrated within a mass market game and gaming platform than the game itself, which is a battle royale thirdperson shooter — also with a 60 hour single player mode — in which your character’s cybernetic limbs are swappable and tradable NFTs.

This isn’t to say that the game won’t be good, however. Developer Gunzilla is effectively part of the old Crytek studio system so knows how to make highend shooters, and it’s been making this particular shooter for over four years.

There will also be lots of customizable weapons, which can already be traded on the game’s mobile wallet, which runs using the GUN token, although the token isn’t yet live external to the app.

Presumably this at-arms-length approach will be how Gunzilla will handle much of the game’s blockchain and trading elements rather than within the game itself. Probably that’s how Sony would also like it.

And there’s a lot riding on the game’s reception, both for blockchain games in general and for the developer itself, which has raised over $100 million for a game which it apparently believes has the potential to attract 100 million gamers and generate a billion dollars in revenue in its first year.

No pressure then!

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Calendar

• Revolving Games’ RCADE node sale — 15th August

• GOAT Games’ season 1 play-to-airdrop ends — 15th August

• MOJO token goes live on Base for IAPs — 19th August

• Ubisoft-backed The Watch launches its alpha — 28th August

• Polygon upgrades, MATIC becomes POL — 4th September

Funding news

• US outfit Autoverse Studios has announced an $8 million funding round for its forthcoming Immutable-based multiplatform drag racing game Auto Legends, which is currently in closed beta testing via Epic Game Store.

The round was led by White Star Capital, with participation from an irregular bunch of mainly US investors including Sfermion, Saison Capital, Ocular, RockawayX and Sidedoor, plus Pixelmon dev LiquidX, as well as angels such as Horacio Pagani (of Pagani fame), Niccolo De Masi (ex-Glu CEO) and Alex Thabet (ex-Ludia CEO and White Star partner).

As for Autoverse, it reboots the core of one-time mobile dev Cie Games — acquired by Glu Mobile for $100 million in 2014 — which operated Racing Rivals, one of the very first mobile games to offer in-app wagering of in-game items. In this case, there was a pink slip mode in which the winner gained the loser’s car: an early form of NFT-lite gaming if you like.

Of course, this will make a return in full blockchain mode in Auto Legends, alongside other blockchain-enabled features such as a heavy car customization meta, and the ability to build out guilds, become a car tuner or retailer, and host your own tournaments. UGC, which can be monetized, is also promised as well as the ability for spectators to wager on in-game races. Of course, the usual array of real life car/part brands will be supported.

However, the game is mainly designed to first appeal to a web2 audience, with co-founder Justin Choice telling Dean Takahashi that “The web3 gaming audience is still nascent so we are designing the game primarily for web2”.

If nothing else, it will provide some competition for Mythical and CM Games’ similar web2/web3 drag racer Nitro Nation, which has been crawling towards its official release for some 18 months.

Guild of Guardians news

• Three months on from launch, Immutable is still quoting the same “600,000 downloads, 250,000 MAUs” for its mobile squad RPG Guild of Guardians, so it doesn’t look like there’s been much in the way of playerbase growth.

Nevertheless, those of us playing have been getting to grips with the release of two new guardians; legendary healer Jadey and epic warrior Callisto. As with previous launches, players can purchase prayers, which are burnt to (hopefully) summon Jadey via a fixed odds gacha system. Callisto provides a secondary drop for failed Jadey summoners. Or — if you’re anything like me — you just buy them off a marketplace.

For the record, Jadey currently has a floor price of $48 and Callisto $6. It’s also worth noting that you’ll need multiple versions of each guardian to level them up to more powerful versions.

Tweet of the Day

• My tweet — which was the subject of yesterday’s email: “Blocklords Dynasty's 80% decline” — is getting some nice interaction.