Epic Games Store to launch first NFT Game GRIT - Wild West Battle Royale

Revealed on the Galaverse convention, GRIT will be the first NFT game to make its way onto the Epic Games Store, a free-to-play battle royale set in the Wild West.

Jun 9, 2022
by Dragan
Epic Games Store to launch first NFT Game GRIT - Wild West Battle Royale
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Blockchain gaming history is being made, as we now officially have the first NFT game accepted for release on one of the biggest PC game store platforms. The breakthrough to widespread NFT gaming adoption is being made by the creators of Fortnite, Epic Games, who have partnered up with Gala Games to release GRIT, a battle royale set in the Wild West, onto their store. The Epic Games Store has over 194 million users and the game’s store page is already up for all to see.

This partnership was revealed in front of a live audience during Day 1 of the Galaverse “-into the galaverse europe 2022” convention, which took place in Malta on June 6th, 2022. 

In development by Team GRIT for PC using the Unreal Engine, the store page gives us some details of what we can expect to see in the upcoming Wild West-themed NFT title. The free-to-play battle royale will have players battle it out in “solo, duo and squad showdowns” using more than 20 different weapons which are described as being ‘projectile-based’, which means that various realistic factors such as gravity have to be taken into account when aiming at others. Players will be able to ride horses and shoot while on them, as well as steal other player’s horses while staying in the safe zone, away from the “all-consuming calamity storm.”

There will be a perk system in place that will require players to find weapons “that build a Flush to gain special perks.”

“Collect multiple weapon cards of the different suits to give your player special bonuses. Going all-in with a certain suit or mixing and matching. [There are] advantages and tradeoffs to be made depending on the cards you're collecting. Will you go all-in on gunslinging, focus on patching up your wounds after each skirmish, or find some other winning combination?”

Before the start of a round, you’ll get to see active wildcards which can vastly adjust what kind of match you’ll get to play. There are 3 different types of modifiers: calamity wildcard, showdown wildcard and undertaker wildcard. The first modifier determines the game mode, of which there are three: there’s the classic battle royale mode where you stay in an ever-closing safe zone, a Train Chase mode and a Golden Horse game mode. The showdown wildcard adjusts the “Second Chance Showdown” 1v1 feature, deciding whether players will be able to get back into the game after dying by dueling it out with another dead player or not. It’s also possible that the wildcard, for example, makes the showdown possible only during the first half of the round, removing the mechanic in the second half of the match. Last but not least, there’s the undertaker wildcard which dictates whether or not there will be a merchant you can trade with during the round. 

Players will be able to earn even while playing for free, but for those who’d like to have a chance at earning more can purchase the Battlepass or a Generative Hero NFT, which is a unique and customizable character with cosmetic loadout slots and more.

The reception to the announcement and the gameplay shown has been mixed. While some have called the reveal “great news” and a “game changer,” others have described the game as looking like “trash” and “underdeveloped,” which is unsurprising given the footage shown is an early look at an unfinished version showing us a glimpse of what we can expect. Since GRIT has no scheduled release date, here’s hoping the developers take their time to improve and polish every aspect of the game so it ends up having a successful and fun launch.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney initially tweeted last year that “We aren’t touching NFTs as the whole field is currently tangled up with an intractable mix of scams, interesting decentralized tech foundations, and scams.” But unlike Valve, who have stayed firm in having NFTs banned from Steam in preference of keeping a closed marketplace that benefits them the most, the Epic Games CEO quickly backpedaled on his statement about a month later, saying that he is open to games utilizing blockchain technology, “provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group. Though Epic's not using crypto in our games, we welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance.” 

“As a technology, the blockchain is just a distributed transactional database with a decentralized business model that incentivize investment in hardware to expand the database's capacity. This has utility whether or not a particular use of it succeeds or fails.”

Gala Games President of Games John Osvald said the following:

“Epic is a pioneer and visionary in the video game industry. Gala Games’ titles being available on the Epic Game Store brings legitimacy to this new genre of gaming. Easy access to Web3 games is a turning point for those players who have not yet seen how digital ownership can enrich the gaming experience.”

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