Gunzilla Games Has Launched the NFT Shooter Off The Grid

Gunzilla Games, headquartered in Frankfurt, has released Off The Grid in Early Access on PC and consoles. The battle/extraction royale third-person shooter is the studio's first project, and its monetisation is based on NFTs and blockchain.

Although a release was planned for this year, Gunzilla Games has surprisingly launched its first game, Off The Grid, into Early Access without any press releases, but with the support of streamers such as Ninja, timthetatman and scump. The battle/extraction royale third-person shooter with a 60-hour narrative campaign is available on PC (Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S for Xbox Insiders. "Get ready to dive into the ultimate Extraction Royale where PvP and PvE collide in an all-out battle for survival! Teardrop Island - once full of promise, now a dystopian warzone—needs a hero. Too bad it's getting you. (... ) This isn't just another shooter. This is the next evolution of cyberpunk warfare, imagined by visionary director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium), and it's about to turn the genre upside down," the company said. In the multiplayer mode, up to 60 players can battle it out, although the official website mentions a maximum of 150 players.

The game is free-to-play and uses blockchain and NFT technologies in its own ecosystem, called Gunz. Players can buy weapons, skins, cybernetic limbs and other cosmetic items in-game and trade them on a marketplace, with Gunzilla Games stressing that the NFT features are optional. "All transactions and related activity, payments for in-game purchases, refunds, and customer support are handled by the publisher of this product," says the Epic Games Store.

Founded in 2020, Gunzilla Games is an independent video game developer and publisher located in Frankfurt, Germany (HQ); Kyiv, Ukraine; and London, UK. The company is led by CEO Vlad Korolov and CSO Alexander Zoll. Operations and the Gunzilla Games brand are managed by Poseidon 133 Pte Ltd, Singapore.

In March 2024, Gunzilla Games announced a total of $30 million in funding, consisting of a $10 million strategic token round co-led by CoinFund and Avalanche's Blizzard Fund, with participation from Republic Capital and Morningstar Ventures, as well as previously undisclosed equity and validator sales. "Alongside Off The Grid, we have also simultaneously developed Gunz, a blockchain-based digital economy platform built to allow Gunzilla and even other AAA game developers to empower players with full ownership of in-game items as tradable NFTs on an on-chain marketplace and mobile apps. Proceeds from these sales will be applied towards the game launch and the initial wave of post-release content for the rest of the year," the company wrote in March 2024.

Shortly after, the native integration of Gunz with OpenSea was announced, making Gunz the ninth blockchain supported by the peer-to-peer NFT marketplace, allowing users to trade in-game items from any game built on the Gunz platform. "Players and OpenSea users alike will be able to trade in-game NFT items for any game built on the Gunz blockchain and utilize the 'Gun' token as the exclusive method of payment," the company said. Last but not least, Delphi Ventures, a crypto VC, was announced as the largest validator of the Gunz blockchain in September 2024. "This investment by one of the best Web3 Gaming Funds will make Delphi the largest Gunzilla Validator Node operator, and shows immense confidence in not only Off The Grid but in the whole Gunz ecosystem. We are very excited to have Delphi on board," Vlad Korolev, CEO and Co-Founder of Gunzilla said. Back in August 2022, the studios raised a total of $46 million in an investment round led by Republic Capital. Other major participants include Griffin Gaming Partners, Animoca Brands, Jump Crypto, Raptor Group, CoinFund, Shima Capital, Dominance Ventures, GSR, Kucoin Labs, Spartan Investment Group, AlphaCrypto Capital, Blizzard, Digital Strategies, Morningstar Ventures, Gamegroove Capital, NGG and Huobi Group.

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