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

Gunzilla Video games, the developer behind NFT-incorporating battle royale recreation Off The Grid, has allegedly stopped paying employees because the shooter struggles to take care of its participant base.

As reported by Insider Gaming, a lot of Gunzilla staff have taken to LinkedIn to element the state of affairs on the firm.

The agency’s Expertise Acquisition Lead, Anna Savina, claimed that staff had gone months with out receiving their wage, and alleged that Gunzilla execs had been ignoring requests for fee.

“I devoted three years of my skilled life to Gunzilla Video games. I constructed groups, discovered prime expertise, and lived the corporate’s mission 24/7. In the present day, I’m compelled to face a major excellent debt that covers a number of months of my skilled life,” Savina mentioned.

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

Anton Pali, a senior QA engineer, claimed that he’s gone 5 months and not using a paycheck from Gunzilla, and that the corporate’s CEO, Vlad Korolev, backtracked on guarantees to pay him in full.

In the meantime, retired VFX animator Paul Creamer claimed, “Gunzilla Video games has not paid its staff for a lot of months however nonetheless expects them to work,” including that he hasn’t been paid since October 2025 with some ready even longer.

Creamer additionally claimed that in December, Korolev known as his division to tell them that salaries could be paid, the agency is worthwhile, and that they need to hold quiet about salaries.

He mentioned, “He was not being truthful and now the corporate ignores our questions and removes our posts about what’s happening making an attempt to silence us. Silence is what they’re hoping for, wishing that we’ll simply quietly go away.”

It’s not simply pay, both. Former biome artist Théa Dorangeon claims they had been mistreated by former colleagues, and that the sport’s creative pointers lacked readability and drove artists “loopy.”

These are just some of the upset staff who’ve taken to LinkedIn to air their grievances over delayed funds.

Gunzilla Video games CEO defends wage delays

In response to the slew of allegations, Korolev admitted that the salaries have been delayed whereas additionally claiming that this was vital for the corporate’s success. He described the wage revelations as “a brand new narrative from haters.”

He posted, “Sure, we’re optimizing prices — like each firm in gaming, crypto, and tech is doing proper now. We have now been doing this for over a 12 months.”

“And sure, to not disrupt firm operations, some funds could also be scheduled in a method that works for the corporate’s money stream — not at all times for everybody individually. That’s the fact of the world we stay in.”

He went on, “However to guard the pursuits of our gamers and our full-time official staff — whose salaries, over six years, have by no means been delayed by greater than per week — we function at a tempo that ensures the corporate continues shifting ahead.”

“And naturally, we honor each obligation. We apologize for any inconvenience this may occasionally have brought on,” he mentioned.

These explanations had been buried close to the top of his publish, whereas nearly all of his tackle was used to brag about participant counts, subscriber numbers, and recreation updates.

Oddly, he supplied a stay dashboard for “these nonetheless spreading FUD” to see new gamers becoming a member of, however added that it will value the viewer 100,000 GUNZ tokens to entry.

The GUNZ token, which is utilized in Off The Grid’s in-game economic system, is down nearly 86% since its launch final 12 months and at its present value, it will value the viewer $1,649 to verify this dashboard.

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

A few of the disgruntled staff at the moment are making an attempt to get well compensation via the European Union’s authorized framework.

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

He mentioned, “The authorized course of for recovering unpaid compensation within the EU is well-defined, and the prices are comparatively modest in contrast to what’s owed.”

Savina additionally famous that she was enterprise formal steps inside the EU authorized framework.

Off The Grid was launched in 2024 and was one of many extra mainstream video video games to include blockchain expertise into its recreation retailer.

The sport launched with an honest quantity of participant traction.

By 2025, publications reported it had 450,000 each day lively gamers. Nevertheless, this statistic was simply lively addresses holding its GUNZ token, and never a metric for precise gamers.

It initially struggled with a litany of optimization points for console gamers, and critiques for the sport have been lower than stellar. On Steam, it now pulls in roughly 12,000 gamers a day.

In March 2025, Gunzilla acquired online game information outlet Recreation Informer after it was shut down by GameStop in 2024. All of its outdated employees had been rehired within the course of.

Off The Grid testers say they had been paid inconsistently

Former Blockworks journalist Kate Irwin additionally shared this week that Off The Grid recreation testers instructed her that they weren’t being paid, or obtained extremely late funds, for his or her work.

“On Glassdoor, you can even see studies of delayed funds going again years from individuals who say they labored at Gunzilla as full-time staff, not as contractors or freelancers,” Irwin added.

The testers instructed Irwin that there have been at the very least 700 of them, and a few suffered delayed funds. They claimed there was inconsistency throughout the wages of testers, whereas some mentioned they had been merely completely satisfied to be paid throughout the Ukraine-Russia battle.

Irwin famous, nevertheless, {that a} third-party middleman in control of the funds could have been the issue, and never essentially Gunzilla.

Protos has reached out to Recreation Informer and Gunzilla for remark and can replace this piece ought to we hear something again.