Crypto Gaming Shakeup: ’Off the Grid’ Hits Steam While Ethereum’s ’Ember Sword’ Crashes

Another week, another rollercoaster for blockchain gaming—where hype meets reality (and reality usually wins).

New Blood on Steam: ’Off the Grid’ storms the platform, betting big on crypto integration. Will it dodge the ’play-to-earn’ graveyard?

RIP Ember Sword: Ethereum’s much-hyped RPG pulls the plug. Another casualty of gas fees and overpromises—shocking exactly no one who’s watched this space for more than five minutes.

Meanwhile, Wall Street still thinks NFTs are just monkey jpegs. Bless their hearts.

Top stories

Avalanche-powered battle royale shooter game Off the Grid is gradually transitioning its players from testnet to the GUNZ mainnet, enabling real cryptocurrency trading of in-game items for GUN tokens. Currently, only about 0.13% of the game’s 16.5 million players can access the mainnet marketplace, yet high-value trades are already occurring.

Notable recent sales include a Prankster tactical vest for $2,393, a ZipperMouth mask for $1,100, and various other rare items fetching hundreds to thousands of dollars. The most coveted items are ultra-rare Pioneer and Legacy weapons, which collectors are holding onto expecting future updates that could drive five-figure sales.

Off the Grid plans to expand to Steam in June, despite Steam’s 2021 ban on blockchain games. Gunzilla Games has yet to explain how this will work, though the game is also available on PlayStation and Xbox, which similarly restrict crypto features.

 Ember Sword, an Ethereum-based MMORPG, has shut down due to lack of funding. Developer Bright Star Studios, despite attracting prominent investors and gaming industry veterans as advisors, said it couldn’t secure continued financing in the current market climate.

The game launched during the 2021 metaverse boom, attracting nearly 35,000 players that pledged $203 million for its land sale, though the actual amount raised was apparently far less than that eye-popping figure. The game faced disappointing reception when it entered closed beta in July 2024, and its EMBER token has now crashed over 99% from peak levels.

This closure reflects a broader trend of crypto game shutdowns, with recent casualties including Nyan Heroes, Blast Royale, and Tatsumeeko all closing within the same period, plus other prominent 2025 closures including Deadrop and The Mystery Society. The wave of closures highlights the funding challenges facing blockchain gaming projects in the current market environment.

ICYMI

• Ubisoft has relaunched Champions Tactics on Steam as Champions Tactics: Reforged, which lacks the NFT marketplace and benefits for holders. Decrypt is seeking further clarification on the changes.
• Yield Guild Games launched LOL Land, a board game-inspired experience from its new publishing division, on Ethereum layer-2 network Abstract.
• Mythical Games’ upcoming mobile blockchain soccer game FIFA Rivals has opened pre-registrations on Google’s Android Play Store.

Make sure you get in on Day 1 - Google Play pre-registration is live!https://t.co/kltKy5FR9D

— John Linden (@johnwastaken) May 19, 2025

• Classic Call of Duty multiplayer servers tied to the unofficial MLG meme coin have attracted more than 20,000 players to date.
• Sui gaming platform Seed Combinator apparently launched an Axie Infinity knockoff, generating a whole bunch of angry tweets and distancing from the project.
• Voya Games raised $5 million in funding co-led by 1kx and Makers Fund, ahead of the launch of its upcoming crypto game, Craft World.

We’ve raised $5M to launch Craft World, our Dyno apocalypse crafting game with 240K+ players signed up!🎉

Co-led by @1kxnetwork & @makersfundvc, with support from @Rockaway_X, @Jihoz_Axie, @borgetsebastien & many other great minds from web2 & web3 gaming.

Read on👇 https://t.co/Nwzr8m2bUI

— VOYA Games (@Voya_Games) May 21, 2025

• Sony’s PlayStation Stars rewards program—which it went out of its way to confirm wasn’t built around NFTs—is shutting down. Reminder that Sony now has its own Ethereum layer-2 network, Soneium.
• Off the Grid is testing a much-anticipated deathmatch mode, with 20-player matches.
• Trading card game Parallel will hold its next esports open tournament on May 31.

The @ParallelTCG Prime League Season 2 Open III is the first Post-Shotgun Patch competition, kicking off May 30th at 10pm ET / May 31st at 2am UTC!

We’re keeping the two Swiss bracket qualifiers for our global playerbase, with the Top 16 competing for $2500 in prizes and league… pic.twitter.com/F5Um9Qhlko

— Parallel League (@Parallel_League) May 23, 2025

• Sugartown’s Royal Nutz Poker Club game relaunched on Abstract on Friday.
• Sparkball has launched its pre-season ahead of the late summer Season Zero rollout.
• NFT card game Gods Unchained appears to be teasing a crossover with Guild of Guardians for June.

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