NFT game studio boss says not paying staff 'works for company cash flow'

Gunzilla Games, the developer behind NFT-incorporating battle royale game Off The Grid, has allegedly stopped paying staff as the shooter struggles to maintain its player base.

As reported by Insider Gaming, a number of Gunzilla employees have taken to LinkedIn to detail the state of affairs at the company. 

The firm’s Talent Acquisition Lead, Anna Savina, claimed that employees had gone months without receiving their salary, and alleged that Gunzilla execs were ignoring requests for payment. 

“I dedicated three years of my professional life to Gunzilla Games. I built teams, found top talent, and lived the company’s mission 24/7. Today, I’m forced to face a significant outstanding debt that covers several months of my professional life,” Savina said.

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She now claims her “personal matter” has been resolved. 

Anton Pali, a senior QA engineer, claimed that he’s gone five months without a paycheck from Gunzilla, and that the company’s CEO, Vlad Korolev, backtracked on promises to pay him in full. 

Meanwhile, retired VFX animator Paul Creamer claimed, “Gunzilla Games has not paid its employees for many months but still expects them to work,” adding that he hasn’t been paid since October 2025 with some waiting even longer.

Creamer also claimed that in December, Korolev called his department to inform them that salaries would be paid, the firm is profitable, and that they should keep quiet about salaries.

He said, “He was not being truthful and now the company ignores our questions and removes our posts about what’s going on trying to silence us. Silence is what they’re hoping for, wishing that we’ll just quietly go away.”

It’s not just pay, either. Former biome artist Théa Dorangeon claims they were mistreated by former colleagues, and that the game’s artistic guidelines lacked clarity and drove artists “crazy.” 

These are just a few of the upset employees who’ve taken to LinkedIn to air their grievances over delayed payments.

Gunzilla Games CEO defends salary delays

In response to the slew of allegations, Korolev admitted that the salaries have been delayed while also claiming that this was necessary for the company’s success. He described the salary revelations as “a new narrative from haters.”

He posted, “Yes, we are optimizing costs — like every company in gaming, crypto, and tech is doing right now. We have been doing this for over a year.”

“And yes, to not disrupt company operations, some payments may be scheduled in a way that works for the company’s cash flow — not always for everyone individually. That’s the reality of the world we live in.”

He went on, “But to protect the interests of our players and our full-time official employees — whose salaries, over six years, have never been delayed by more than a week — we operate at a pace that ensures the company continues moving forward.”

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“And of course, we honor every obligation. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” he said.

These explanations were buried near the end of his post, while the majority of his address was used to brag about player counts, subscriber numbers, and game updates.

Oddly, he offered a live dashboard for “those still spreading FUD” to see new players joining, but added that it would cost the viewer 100,000 GUNZ tokens to access.

The GUNZ token, which is utilized in Off The Grid’s in-game economy, is down almost 86% since its launch last year and at its current price, it would cost the viewer $1,649 to check this dashboard.

Off The Grid’s developer isn’t off the hook.

Some of the disgruntled workers are now trying to recover compensation through the European Union’s legal framework. 

Vladyslav Spitkovskyi, Gunzilla’s senior game programmer, claims he hasn’t been paid since December 2025, and is now pursuing compensation in court. 

He said, “The legal process for recovering unpaid compensation in the EU is well-defined, and the costs are relatively modest compared to what is owed.” 

Savina also noted that she was undertaking formal steps within the EU legal framework. 

Off The Grid was launched in 2024 and was one of the more mainstream video games to incorporate blockchain technology into its game store.

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The game launched with a decent amount of player traction.

By 2025, publications reported it had 450,000 daily active players. However, this statistic was just active addresses holding its GUNZ token, and not a metric for actual players.

It initially struggled with a litany of optimization issues for console players, and reviews for the game have been less than stellar. On Steam, it now pulls in roughly 12,000 players a day. 

In March 2025, Gunzilla acquired video game news outlet Game Informer after it was shut down by GameStop in 2024. All of its old staff were rehired in the process. 

Off The Grid testers say they were paid inconsistently

Former Blockworks journalist Kate Irwin also shared this week that Off The Grid game testers told her that they weren’t being paid, or received incredibly late payments, for their work. 

“On Glassdoor, you can also see reports of delayed payments going back years from people who say they worked at Gunzilla as full-time employees, not as contractors or freelancers,” Irwin added.

The testers told Irwin that there were at least 700 of them, and some suffered delayed payments. They claimed there was inconsistency across the wages of testers, while some said they were simply happy to be paid during the Ukraine-Russia war. 

Irwin noted, however, that a third-party intermediary in charge of the payments may have been the problem, and not necessarily Gunzilla. 

Protos has reached out to Game Informer and Gunzilla for comment and will update this piece should we hear anything back. 

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