Blockchain gaming is supposed to solve the problem of players creating “black markets” for digital items in traditional games, as trading tokenized, user-owned weapons and skins are a key part of open crypto economies.

But ahead of the launch of its Avalanche-based GUNZ L1 mainnet and the on-chain item trading and token that’ll come along with it, Off the Grid—one of crypto’s biggest games to date—has found itself in a very familiar “Web2” kind of situation.

The battle royale shooter has a bustling black market where players trade skins and GUN tokens for real money. This underground economy has spawned due the game currently not allowing players to trade their items freely on-chain, as its mainnet launch looms.

Avid skin collectors gather in clan Discord servers or trading-specific groups, spamming the chat with messages like “Want to buy GUN tokens with USD,” or offering to sell their rare skins in exchange for cash.

This kind of activity is strictly prohibited in the game’s terms of service, but for players aiming to secure some of the game’s best loot before on-chain trading is implemented, it’s apparently worth the risk.

Two of the game’s largest skin collecting whales, Money Magician and torToro, don’t engage with what’s called over-the-counter or OTC trading, because they believe the skins will be worth much more once the GUNZ mainnet launches and items can be freely traded on OpenSea. But they said they’ve received offers.

“For my account, somebody offered $60,000 or something,” Money Magician told Decrypt. “Maybe it seems reasonable right now, but I still wouldn’t sell it—because I know where these NFTs are going.”

These whales own approximately 10,000 and 19,000 NFT items each, both starting their collecting through Off the Grid’s predecessor, a compact mobile experience called Technocore. The pair were then invited to the game’s closed testing period under strict non-disclosure agreement, during which the game’s rarest items to date were released.

During this testing period, players that bought the monthly OTG Pro subscription for $10 were handed the Pioneer content pack as thanks. This came with eight NFT items, and it is believed by the community that only 550 of each were minted at the time.

Thought to be even rarer, however, is the Convict gear and Zippermouth Mask that were available to extract via hexes for a short period of time. The community believes that these are the rarest items in the game, with only 300 of each ever minted. That’s not to mention the possible increased rarity of an item based on its serial number.

There were also guns with modified stats or alternate attachments that were discontinued, which have since been rebranded to “Legacy” and “Retro” skins of stock guns that remain in the game.

Those that own items released during the closed play test are hopeful they will never return to the game, but Theodore Agranat—director of Web3 for developer Gunzilla Games—said that isn’t the case, at least for one of the rare items.

He told Decrypt that the studio “reserves the right” to release items that were never “officially released,” which is defined by it being added to the battle pass, as a monthly content pack, or as part of a special campaign. Agranat said that the Convict gear will “absolutely” be officially released in the future.

On top of this, Agranat confirmed that Gunzilla Games is working on a more comprehensive numbering system to help validate the amount of items minted. The studio is also implementing a system to display which items are exclusive and which are not.

Off the Grid is currently running on a testnet of GUNZ, the dedicated Avalanche L1 gaming network, meaning that items can be traded on its marketplace using its in-game GUN token. However, items and tokens cannot yet be sold on third-party marketplaces or exchanged for other currencies. 

As a result, some players are turning to the black market out of necessity to fulfill their collecting dreams. An avid Off the Grid player simply known as H claims to have bought the Pioneer, Prankster, and Anarchist sets for $3,000, so that he can gift the Pioneer set to his son (who also plays the game) once mainnet hits.

Gamer Henryk Ptasznik shared evidence with Decrypt of an almost $1,500 Solana payment he received, which he claimed was in exchange for his full Pioneer set. He told Decrypt that he did this because he already had enough GUN tokens, and wanted to cash in some of his inventory before mainnet launch, as he fears the uncertainty it may bring. 

Most traders, however, are looking to grow their inventory before mainnet, as they believe there will be an immediate price jump—and an even larger increase once a bigger audience starts playing the game and engaging with its on-chain features.

“I believe in the future of Off the Grid. It could be the next Apex [Legends] or Fortnite,” Cpt. Jaxie, a gamer that claims 40% of his crypto portfolio is in Off the Grid NFTs, told Decrypt. “My total investment into Off the Grid is around $4,500, I’ve already turned a profit. I’m around $2,000 in profit.” 

“It’s a long-term hold for me,” he added. “One year or more and [it will] 10x in price.”

With so much demand for a black market, many of the biggest Off the Grid clans—such as Flaw Gaming—have dedicated trading Discord channels. In these chats, players look to sell bundles of 1,000 GUN tokens for anywhere between $4 to $10 in an unofficial form of pre-market trading, as well as shift unwanted skins or even sell off their accounts. Other times, buyers will directly approach those holding an item they want, without the need for advertising.

When trading a specific item or set, the two parties enter a dance of risk and trust. After agreeing on a price, one party must list an item on the in-game marketplace for the other to purchase using GUN—which is often sent back to the buyer. Then the buyer must send the agreed-upon amount, usually via crypto, but there are obvious risks here as they could ghost the seller at any time. If there are multiple items to trade, then it may be done in multiple transactions.

Trust risks aside, there are also potential hazards with listing items on the marketplace at all, as a sniper bot could purchase it—especially if it is an ultra-rare item not already on the marketplace. But some traders still persist amid these hurdles.

“I like to have multiples of everything in the market, so I can sell some on mainnet and keep some for myself and my sons,” H told Decrypt. “You can call it a bit of an addiction.”

Previously, Gunzilla Games told Decrypt that it was aiming for a Q1 2025 mainnet launch, which would fully enable trading and eliminate the need for a black market. With only about three weeks left until that deadline, Agranat confirmed to Decrypt that this is still the plan.

Until then, the black market continues to thrive as community members show clear signs that they’re hungry to trade their skins. If Gunzilla Games can’t offer this yet, then much like in Web2 games, players will continue to find ways to trade.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Blockchain-driven battle royale shooter Off the Grid has launched what Gunzilla Games is calling its “biggest update yet” by unlocking a region of the map, adding a new cyberlimb into the game, and debuting a new “street event.”

Off the Grid made a major splash when it entered early access back in October, due to its blend of the battle royale and extraction shooter genres, combined with quirky characters in a reality TV-inspired setting. It quickly became the most popular free-to-play game on the Epic Games Store, surpassing Fortnite in the process, and later won Decrypt’s Game of the Year award.  

In December, Off the Grid launched an update that focused on reworking elements of the game while boosting performance. But this latest update instead looks to add exciting new features to the experience in an effort to keep players coming back for more.

“Biggest update we have EVER done,” Gunzilla Games Director of Web3 Theodore Agranat told Decrypt, echoing the announcement calling it the “biggest update yet.” 

Firstly, the “industrial hell hole” of Midtown Harbour has been unlocked as a playable region on the Teardrop Island map. Gunzilla told Decrypt back in December that only 20% of the map was playable at the time, as it looked to open it up throughout 2025. Midtown Harbour is the first step towards unlocking this goal.

Inside this new region, the Mexican Nuestros Diablos gang has set up shop and will relentlessly defend it. This new “street event” will see players fight it out with the non-playable characters, or NPCs, in order to grab a hex—which can then be extracted in exchange for weapons, cyberlimbs, or skins.

On top of this, the game’s first side mission—called “Combat DJ”—has been added to the game. In this mission, squads will fight to control the area surrounding a DJ booth as music blares out; if a team “dominates” the zone, they will earn loot and XP. 

The most game-changing addition, perhaps, is the new MaxiGun cyberlimb, which is essentially a fully-automatic mini gatling gun strapped to your arm. How effective this will be remains to be seen, but it’s sure to shake up how players strategize their loadouts.

And if you’re just here for the refreshed cosmetics, the update also adds a Nuestros Diablos content pack as well as the Pacifist Character Set to the battle pass.

It is also worth noting that the update also includes a significant amount of bug fixes, weapon improvements, and user interface changes. Although, according to patch notes reviewed by Decrypt, it appears there has been no weapon balancing this time around.

Right now, Off the Grid’s crypto elements are working in the background on the GUNZ testnet, a dedicated L1 network on the Avalanche blockchain. Over the long-term, the game is looking to open a marketplace similar to Valve’s Steam marketplace where weapons, cyberlimbs, and skins can be freely traded.

While this update has been branded as its biggest yet, the much-anticipated launch of in-game crypto elements and the impending GUN token could bring a more substantial change that industry advocates believe will help drive crypto gaming adoption.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

The Mystery Society, a Web3 game that pairs the casual-friendly gameplay of Among Us with a murder mystery vibe, has suspended development after developer Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow said it struggled to find funding to continue supporting the game.

The web-based game debuted in early 2024 as the studio raised $3 million in a funding round led by Shima Capital. Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow was founded by game industry veterans and led by CEO Chris Heatherly, who previously oversaw Disney’s Club Penguin gaming platforms and later NBCUniversal’s gaming division.

Mystery Society initially launched on Ethereum scaling network Polygon and then migrated to Immutable late last year, with plans to launch a MYSTRY token around the game. But now the token is on hold following Monday’s announcement.

“We will keep the game live for as long as we can while we look for a new home,” the team’s X post read. “We are considering a relaunch without the Web3 elements on Steam. And we are open to shifting the game to a publisher—either in Web2 or Web3—if there are any willing to take it forward.”

The post briefly pointed to issues securing funding to continue development on the game, and when reached for comment, Heatherly didn’t mince words about the current state of play.

“It’s the mother of all clusterfucks for Web3 gaming right now—the crypto market’s crashing, VCs are tapped out, and a poor track record of game token [generation events, or TGEs],” he told Decrypt. “Most of the dry powder was deployed months ago, and many VCs have been forced into liquid trading of alts and memes to try to show returns to LPs so they can raise new funds. The risk appetite is non-existent.”

Indeed, crypto prices have been battered of late. While Bitcoin and other assets surged in the wake of President Trump’s November election win, with some reaching new all-time peaks, many top coins have already shed most of those gains. Bitcoin traded below $83,000 on Thursday, barely a month after peaking above $108,000.

Gaming tokens have taken some of the hardest hits, trading much like meme coins with their volatile swings. And as of this writing, only two gaming tokens remain in the top 100 coins by market cap, with several falling from the list in recent months. Most of last year’s biggest new gaming tokens have since cratered in value.

In his comments to Decrypt, Heatherly pointed the finger at a desire from investors and traders for quick returns on a token, all while recent momentum around meme coins crashes.

“Meme coins have really fucked the space more than people want to admit,” he said. “It lured people into magical ‘ponzinomic’ thinking that you don’t need a real product, you just need hype, and you can just rotate from token to token, narrative to narrative by chasing alpha.”

Heatherly said this is why many crypto game creators are launching things like dedicated layer-2 networks, Telegram spinoff games, and AI agents in an effort to keep the hype alive.

“It’s not that some of this isn’t potentially worth doing,” he clarified, “but it’s being done to court investment or hype a token, not in a principled or long-term way.”

Heatherly still thinks Web3 gaming has a future. A model in which players can sell their NFTs or tokens for some level of return when they stop playing a digital game could help boost Web3 adoption, he believes. But that only works when expectations are kept in check, and players don’t demand a massive token reward just for trying out a game.

The Mystery Society was developed while considering the performance of comparable “Web2” games like Among Us and Stumble Guys, which Heatherly said have each earned hundreds of millions of dollars without crypto economics. He believes the free-to-play industry would rapidly shift on-chain if such a model was proven out, but that requires moving past the “get-rich-quick fantasy” that remains pervasive in the space.

“Greed and stupidity from just about all players is killing the space before it can prove itself,” Heatherly added. “We need to be focused on building healthy on-chain businesses first, and end this TGE-to-nowhere ponzinomic fallacy. Every Web3 gaming founder I know is frustrated, burned out, and just doing what they are doing to try to survive—but with true conviction evaporating by the day.”

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. On Wednesday, Heatherly wrote that he’s received outreach from various chains and creators in the space, and is considering an idea to “tokenize the IP” for The Mystery Society or pursue another path forward.

“I got into this because I missed Club Penguin and I wanted to do Club Penguin for adults,” he wrote on X. “And somehow, all the people I got introduced to just wanted to extract, and it just felt soulless and so disconnected from what I want to do and am good at.”

“But the last few days, you’ve let me know that you may still be out there,” Heatherly continued. “You may still care. You may want to build something together that’s more than a pump and dump. You may want to build a real clubhouse for Web3. If you are still out there and you want to figure this out, I think I see a way.”