Success of Off The Grid demonstrates that ‘invisible’ blockchain is the winning strategy

Off The Grid burst onto the gaming scene with a bang, quickly attracting 9.12 million users and over 100 million transactions in its first month. An electrifying start indeed!

But what’s the secret to Off The Grid’s success? It turns out, blockchain plays a supporting role rather than stealing the spotlight. The game’s graphics and gameplay don’t rely on blockchain technology, and its NFT in-game items are optional. In fact, Off The Grid plans to launch a marketplace where players can trade items using Gunz, a subset of Avalanche. A new GUN token will serve as in-game currency for purchasing items and skins.

The key takeaway from Off The Grid’s triumph is that focusing on great gameplay, with blockchain features as a cool extra for those interested, can be a game-changer. This approach helped Gunzilla Games snag funding from VanEck, building on the $517 million raised in Q3 by other gaming startups.

But here’s the kicker: many gamers are still skeptical of blockchain and NFTs. Game developers looking to dip their toes into Web3 might want to keep the blockchain aspect “invisible” to players, at least at first.

According to Viktoriya Hying, co-founder of gaming chain B3, past attempts by big publishers to introduce blockchain features have often been met with fan backlash. Players can be wary of anything blockchain-related, but slowly easing them into it might be the winning strategy.

Off The Grid is positioning itself as the trailblazer of Web3 games, even as it distances itself from the NFT game tag. Anthony Palma from Mysten Labs echoes the sentiment that games should just be called “games,” not Web2 or Web3.

Most blockchain-based games today fall in the Web2.5 category, with real-time computation demands often pushing transactions offchain. To go fully onchain, games would need advanced technical capabilities that many current blockchains struggle to deliver.

Speaking of blockchains, platforms like Solana and Sui are making waves in the gaming world. Solana was initially hailed as the go-to platform for top-tier games, but now others like Sui, based on Facebook’s Move language, are emerging. These platforms offer high scalability and low fees, perfect for competitive multiplayer gaming.

And let’s not forget about Immutable X and Avalanche, both making strides in the gaming sector. Immutable X’s ZK-rollups provide scalability and zero gas fees, while Avalanche’s subnet architecture allows for custom blockchains optimized for specific gaming needs, like Off The Grid’s Gunz.

In the end, whether a game is on or off the chain depends on its design and technical demands. Some games, like those from Proof of Play studio, focus on simpler gameplay that doesn’t require high computation power. It just goes to show that innovation in the gaming industry is alive and well, with blockchain playing an exciting but optional role in the games we love to play.