Off The Grid Launch on Steam

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Is Off The Grid ready to dominate?

Off The Grid, a cyberpunk-themed battle royale game developed by Gunzilla Games, is set to launch on Steam via Early Access on July 17, 2025. The game has been available since October 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Epic Games Store, and the Steam release marks its expansion to a broader PC gaming audience.

Undoubtedly, one of the most funded games in the web3 space, with $100m in VC funding, Off the Grid is having its biggest moment yet.

Steam is, obviously, the leading PC gaming platform, and measuring a game’s success without it is not possible. That is especially true in the competitive online shooter landscape. Off the Grid’s console versions have seen declining player numbers, with queue times increasing to 1-3 minutes. The Steam release is expected to revitalize the player base.

Some players have expressed frustration with crossplay, particularly due to console aim assist (AA) giving an advantage over PC players. Many believe that opening it up to PC players won’t make a difference, as the PC players will be discouraged by the dominating console aim assist. That said, every shooter with cross play support has had phases where the console and PC player bases collide over balancing issues. There are calls for an option to disable crossplay, though low player counts may make this impractical.

Off the Grid has gradually progressed with their blockchain integrations, albeit slowly, by transitioning their players to mainnet and integrating their own marketplace with Opensea. This integration enables players to buy, sell, and trade in-game NFTs, such as weapons, skins, and cyberlimbs, on OpenSea, which was previously not possible outside of the game. While their web3 journey is slow, it gives a more accurate representation of how a large-scale game would actually move in terms of timetables and strategy.

Where is Mobile Gaming headed?

US-based studio, Spekter Games, raised $5m in a pre-seed round led by a16z. 

While their first title, Spekter Agency, was launched on telegram, this shouldn’t be confused for a funding round based on a long gone telegram meta. They plan to launch this and the following games through traditional mobile stores.

What we should categorise it as, is a funding round for the combination of casual, hypercasual and hybridcasual gameplay with web3 incentives to improve retention and engagement across mobile gaming in any store. This is similar to what TapNation, an already established studio, is trying to do with their collaboration with Unique Network and Arbitrum.

While people were eager to dance on the grave of the telegram meta, which was never appealing or convincing to me, the reality a year later is that mobile gaming is flowing in multiple directions now. Web stores, alternative stores, and yes, messaging apps like Telegram, Line and Discord (although discord is a much wider platform) are all becoming part of mobile gaming.

The App store and Google remain very dominant naturally, but alternative app stores, such as the Epic Games Store for mobile, Samsung Galaxy Store, and Huawei AppGallery, provide additional options, just to start. Then, we got web stores that have gained traction, allowing users to download games directly from developers’ websites or platforms like itch.io, bypassing traditional store restrictions. 

Mobile gaming's new distribution rails don’t stop there. Messaging apps like Discord, Telegram, and Line have become unconventional distribution channels. Rumor has it that even Reddit is looking to integrate games sooner rather than later.

Web3 Gaming studios should, by all means, explore all the different possibilities for their games to find an audience, but not to create a speculative narrative for their tokens.

🎮 More Gaming & Web3 Stories

• Football.Fun announced that they raised $2m in a round led by 6MV. [Read more here]

• Freya: The Starfall open Beta is now live. It’s a mobile and PC multiplayer tactical RPG. [Read more here]

• Hytopia is completely descoping Hychain and is migrating to Base. [Read more here]

• Moonfrost’s early access launched July 16th. [Read more here]

• Project O announced their Alpha Tournament, in which every play tester can participate! [Read more here]

• Remix (formerly Arcade) raised $5m in a round led by Archetype [Read more here]

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