I must preface this by saying I believe in cryptocurrency; I feel it serves a purpose now and will serve a greater purpose in future; however, in its current form, it’s just not ready for widespread adoption, and until crypto game developers find a way to make buying and selling crypto as seamless as purchasing Call of Duty Coins or Fortnite vBucks, even the very best crypto games will not achieve mainstream success.
Gala (and by extension Gala Games) is a solid project, and I have personally invested in it and will likely do so again; however, poorly thought-out and executed titles such as Grit will not convince anyone of the viability of the play-to-earn business model or blockchain games, and I would strongly advise Gala Games to think long and hard before launching another title for PC or Console as not to risk their good reputation earned by mobile games.
Image credit Grit - Published by Gala Games and developed by Team Grit..
As a technology, NFT are very interesting, and being able to turn your old and unused skins and items into money is a very appealing concept; as an early backer of Fortnite, I have a massive locker of rare and no longer obtainable battlepass skins that I have no interest in using, and I would leap at the chance at being able to legally sell them to other players, for even a few dollars per item.
While I understand that NFTs have a very bad reputation rightfully due to people selling JPEGS for 6 and 7-figure sums, judging any technology by its earliest and often least useful implementation is academically dishonest.
NFT technology, in the right hands, would make life much better for gamers, allowing for greater control over digital libraries, which is becoming increasingly more important as the physical media market continues to shrink, with only 10% of gamers opting to purchase physical media in 2022.
I have not purchased a new physical game since Mario Party 9 (2012), and frankly, I would not even consider a physical purchase in 2023, let alone in 5 years’ time.
That being said, while I am personally fine with being unable to resell my digital copies once completed, I cannot help but be interested in the possibility of being able to resell digital licences if I so desire, especially when it comes to discontinued games, whose value is likely to be substantially inflated.
Gamers must stop and think about why they oppose this and related technology instead of accepting the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) that large corporations and the banking industry have spread about crypto to retain their chokehold on the financial sector, more control over your finances and gaming is never a bad thing, and with the right safeguards and regulation could usher in a new golden age of gaming, in a time when live service games and digital libraries are in ascendance.
Image credit Grit - Published by Gala Games and developed by Team Grit..
While I have encountered many poorly performing titles, it has been a long time since I have seen a game perform as poorly as Grit, with even launch day lobbies being forced to start with only eight players after upwards of 20 minutes of waiting.
Gala Games have a large team of talented developers and some very impressive IP to work with, such as Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead. Still, Grit is an unmitigated failure, and the sooner they pull the plug, the better it will be for everyone involved.
While some will attribute its poor numbers due to launching onto Epic Games Store, this is an incorrect and biased assessment.
With Epic Games Store having over 60 million monthly active users (MAU), it is one of the largest gaming platforms in existence, second only to Steam (132M MAU) on PC, a launcher whose own impressive numbers have come into question due to its large amount of bots, alt accounts and scammers.
Image credit Grit - Published by Gala Games and developed by Team Grit..
Grit is desperately unimpressive in almost every aspect of its design, with subpar visuals, audio and combat mechanics that would have looked bad in the 7th console generation, let alone the 9th.
When combined with a non-existent user base and a highly competitive market, nothing about Grit makes it stand out among an ocean of much better games.
Image credit Grit - Published by Gala Games and developed by Team Grit..
Grit remains in active development for PC; however, due to its poor reception, it could transition to a mobile game in the future.
Grit is almost entirely dead, with lobbies taking as long as 30 minutes to find just eight players per mode/region (the minimum required to start the game)
Based on matchmaking times and how often I have seen the same few players, it’s possibly less than 100 people who play Grit worldwide.
Grit supports:
The Grit in-game store sells:
Grit is unrated and contains the following:
Grit is not worth playing, and I feel that Epic Games made a mistake by allowing such an unviable live service game onto its storefront.
While low-quality games can be found on every platform, Grit is essentially unplayable at launch and should be pulled immediately.
