Gunzilla Games, the creator of popular crypto battle royale shooter Off the Grid, has partnered with investment firm Delphi Ventures to advise on the creation of the not-for-profit GUNZ Foundation, which will oversee the upcoming GUN token and GUNZ mainnet launch.

Off the Grid entered public early access in October to rave reviews from players, with a flurry of clips going viral that showcased its unique gameplay. The game drops players into a reality TV setting, where show participants have their arms and legs replaced with robotic limbs with special powers. These players then fight it out in a battle royale arena, with extraction gameplay elements.

“This partnership marks a significant milestone as we prepare for the launch of the GUNZ mainnet and its utility token GUN, setting the stage for a new era in gaming,” Gunzilla co-founder and CEO Vlad Korolev told Decrypt, in a statement.

For now, the game’s crypto elements have been running in the background. A wallet is created on the GUNZ testnet for each player when they launch Off the Grid for the first time, and all in-game items are represented as NFTs that will be moved over to the future mainnet. GUNZ is built as a dedicated L1 network on the Avalanche blockchain.

But Off the Grid’s next steps will both make the shooter’s application of crypto more powerful and more noticeable, with the GUNZ mainnet launch providing more user control over item ownership while the GUN token gains real value.

“Having garnered enormous attention both from the games industry and from within crypto, the launch of the token alongside the GUNZ mainnet represents a critical milestone,” Delphi Ventures Founding Partner Piers Kicks told Decrypt.

This is because it will enable players to invest real money into the ecosystem to purchase the best weapons—or potentially make money from extracted hexes by selling them. 

While this is similar to Web2 concepts like Valve's Steam marketplace, it will allow players more freedom in how they trade their assets, such as via third-party platforms like OpenSea. Off the Grid’s user-owned items are more than just player outfits and avatar designs (aka skins), too, and includes things like rare in-game items.

That provides potential challenges for the game, opening the door to a potentially toxic economy that worsens the gaming experience, rather than empowering it. The formation of the GUNZ Foundation looks to reduce this possibility, and Delphi will also help advise other studios that choose to build games on the GUNZ network in the future. Kicks is also expected to join the Foundation's advisory board.

“With the rollout of the GUNZ Foundation, we are excited to be advising the team on best practices for token economics, go-to-market, and blending game elements into the on-chain economy in a way that thrills players,” Kicks told Decrypt.

Delphi Ventures is the venture capital division that runs alongside Delphi Digital, a research-driven digital assets firm. Delphi Digital has worked with crypto industry giants like Coinbase, Aave, and Lido, while the venture firm has invested in prominent crypto games such as Axie Infinity, Pixelverse, and Nyan Heroes.

The firm, which is the biggest validator on the GUNZ testnet, believes that next year is the perfect time for a blockchain game to break into the mainstream and prove out the crypto model.

“Crypto gaming as a sector has a lot riding on the next 12-18 months,” Kicks explained. “A window of opportunity has opened of favorable market conditions, an aggressively pro-crypto U.S., and many games entering their third and fourth years of the development cycle.”

As such, Gunzilla Games is eyeing up Q1 2025 as a possible timeframe to launch the GUN token and GUNZ mainnet, though nothing has been officially finalized as of this writing.

“Off the Grid represents the biggest shot on goal so far in turning the tide with mainstream gamers,” Kicks finished.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to clarify Delphi Ventures' role in the formation of the GUNZ Foundation.