Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, announces it will list Gala Games’ Grit, a West-theme Battle Royale on its online store. The developer announced it will be welcoming various Web3 gaming projects on Epic Games Store, with Grit being the first NFT project to be included. However, the users don’t seem too happy about this announcement.
For the past few years, traditional gaming brands have been trying to bring Web3 projects into their stores but the gaming community is strictly against these developments. Nonetheless, Epic Games seems adamant about adding Web3 gaming projects to Epic Games Store.
Grit, the first NFT game on Epic Games Store
Grit is the first NFT game to be listed on Epic Games Store. The game was launched in 2021 by Gala Games as a Western-themed cowboy-style battle royale on the Steam marketplace. Grit is mainly introduced as a battle royale inspired by the Wild West.
The first launch happened in 2021 which was a complete failure. The game had introduced its technical test for Windows users for people to try out the new game. At that time, many people complained that the game was a lousy creation with no NFTs or digital assets involved. As a result, Grit into the dark.
The initial drop of Grit was a free multiplayer online game available on Windows PC. After Epic Games’ announcement, the old west battle royale game emerged to the surface as an NFT game ready to be listed on the Store soon.
According to the team, Grit has developed itself to meet the expectations of the Web3 community by introducing digital assets that can be traded within the game. No details or release dates have been shared as of now. All we know is that Grit will be launched on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine alongside its other developed games.
Epic Games wants to replace Steam
In October 2021, Valve suddenly announced it would implement a ban on NFT-based or blockchain games on the Steam platform. Since Steam had the majority of NFT-based games, many Web3 developers were forced to either delete the game from the platform or remove play-to-earn or other Web3 features on existing games.
Grit was also expected to launch on Steam this year but got delayed. Later, in February 2022, Gala Games announced it would partner with Grit developers to launch the game.
Gala Games partners with Epic Games
Gala Games recently held its Galaverse convention, where the executive announced a partnership with Epic Games by listing Grit on the store.
“Grit is going to be one of the very first [NFT-based] games on the Epic Games Store,” He said, “This is the moment that it’s all going to start to change. Now everybody’s going to figure out… ‘why would you play any game where you don’t own what you buy in the game?’”
This official announcement brought Grit to the mainstream as Epic Games shared its intention to list Grit on its Unreal Engine.
Grit also updated its website with the notice “Coming Soon.” The website’s description reads, “Play as an entirely unique character and customize their look. Generative Hero NFTs allow you to own your gunslinger and access cosmetic loadout slots, increased earning potential, and more.”
The game also posted a link directed to a Gala Games website where people can buy “Gunslinger Box” and “receive your 1 of 10,000 Generative Characters” designed as cowboys that will operate on the platform as in-game assets.
Gala Games is optimistic about the success of Grit as an NFT game on the Epic Games Store. Since the store already has millions of users who are ready to spend money for in-game assets, Grit might also become a center of attention for them.
As of now, nothing can be said about Grit’s success because the gaming community seems to be quite radical about NFT or Web3 games.
Gaming community remains unimpressed
Grit hasn’t seemed to successfully impress the gaming community. Many gaming companies have failed to bring gamers into the Web3 world. Besides Epic Games, Stalker 2 also announced its intentions to bring NFTs into its games but then withdrew its decision due to backlash from fans.
Similarly, Team17, Eve Online, and Ubisoft also withdrew their decisions to add NFTs to the games.
“We have listened to our Teamsters, development partners, and our games’ communities, and the concerns they’ve expressed, and have therefore taken the decision to step back from the NFT space,” said Team17.
Even famous figures like Troy baker who announced a partnership with VoiceVerse, an NFT project for Voice NFTs faced an extreme backlash and hatred from the gamers.
The gamers believe NFTs are a new way of monetizing the existing video games. Instead of making games fun, the NFTs would make them more expensive and boring to play.
The gaming community has already been scammed by various paid subscription games that didn’t meet their expectations, so the gamers aren’t ready to accept another money-making technology into the existing games.
Grit has already become the talk of the town among the Twitter gaming community who call it a “Grift.” Epic Games is in for a new challenge on how it can convince its community and bring users to Grit.
Based on its test in 2021, the gameplay doesn’t seem to be much interesting. Nonetheless, we still haven’t seen the new Grit, which might be better and more high-quality compared to the test. Until then, Epic Games will need to convince the gaming community before officially listing Grit on its store.
