Has GUN run out of ammo? Crypto gaming’s favourite token bears a more in-depth look | by Mark Dewolf | The Capital | Might, 2025

Blockchain gaming is on the rise however that hasn’t burnished its dangerous popularity. Dogged by complaints about technical complexity and emphasizing finance over enjoyable, conventional players have stayed away in droves.

Now a brand new arrival to the battle royale style referred to as Off The Grid goals to lure them in by emphasizing pure play and simplifying on-chain transactions.

Developer Gunzilla Video games has its eye on the center floor, integrating crypto buying and selling however with out mucking-up gameplay mechanics or discouraging console use.

There are buying and selling alternatives in-game and out due to a spread of NFTs and the sport’s native GUN token, which is listed on Binance and different massive exchanges.

Is Off the Grid poised make crypto’s marriage with multiplayer gaming a internet achieve’?

In growth since 2022, Off The Grid has been one of the vital extremely anticipated crypto video games of 2025. With artistic course by District 9 filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, the cyberpunk-themed multiplayer combines parts of battle royale and extraction shooter.

Pleasure across the parallel launch of the sport, and the GUNZ Avalanche l1 blockchain it runs on, have helped Gunzilla increase $30 million from CoinFund, Republic Capital, Morningstar Ventures, and Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund in 2024.

It’s 60-hour narrative combines participant vs. participant (PvP) and participant vs. atmosphere (PvE) gaming. Very important in-game objects like weapons and upgrades are represented as non-fungible tokens (NFT) that may be traded on crypto marketplaces.

The Blockchain interface is activated individually from gameplay. Gamers use it to sync in-game objects on-chain, confirm possession, and interact in permissionless NFT trades.

One month in, Off The Grid’s blockchain advantages have drawn a blended reception.

The sport has generated greater than 14.5 million wallets on Avalanche and boasts greater than 500,000 day by day lively customers. But GUN — launched in tandem with the GUNZ blockchain’s mainnet go-live on March thirty first — rapidly misplaced 1 / 4 of its worth over questions in regards to the timing of its eventual in-game integration.

From a day-one excessive of of $0.115, the token had sunk to round $0.06 at time of writing.

Gaming influencers have been extra upbeat. In a pre-launch YouTube stream, in style streamer Ninja informed his 23.8 million subscribers that ‘Off The Grid is enjoyable, man’.

“I performed it for a few hours clearly earlier than I used to be in a position to get an excellent sneak peek earlier than I mentioned ‘sure’ to the hashtag advert and to permitting my pores and skin within the recreation.”

Elsewhere, gaming influencer Tim “TimTheTatman” Betar has referred to as the sport “enjoyable” and “contemporary.”

With regular progress in distinctive lively wallets (UAW) however low transaction quantity, blockchain gaming is ready for a breakout. Off the Grid could develop into a winner, however for now it’s a single participant towards an opposing group of conventional titles producing billions in annual revenues.

Nonetheless, gaming is ripe for disruption. The trade has been within the doldrums of anaemic progress since 2021 — with extra of the identical forecast this 12 months.

Might seamless in-game crypto transactions return it to double-digit CAGR? To persuade gamers to maneuver away from profitable titles like Valorant and Counter-Strike — or persuade conventional recreation publishers to embrace blockchain — they’ll need to see the upside of melding enjoyable with fortune.