Gunzilla, the studio behind NFT battle royale game Off the Grid, faces accusations from multiple current and former employees of withholding pay for months, with several staff members claiming they have received no salary since late 2024.
The allegations surfaced on LinkedIn on April 7, as reported by Insider Gaming. Anna Savina, formerly Gunzilla’s head of talent acquisition, wrote that she was owed several months of salary after three years at the company, and says her attempts to contact studio leadership have gone unanswered. “I’m not the only one. I know many talented colleagues who are in the same ‘fog’. We’re not asking for bonuses; we’re demanding what we have earned,” Savina wrote.
Former Senior VFX Animator Paul Creamer gave a more detailed account. He says he worked through October, November, and December 2025 without pay, after management told him the delays were temporary. According to Creamer, studio CEO Vlad Korolev personally called his department in December to promise that invoices would be paid. “In December, the CEO himself (Vlad Korolev) had a call with my department where he promised us that invoices would be paid as soon as possible, that the company was profitable, and that we were all doing the right thing by keeping quiet and continuing to work.” Those invoices, Creamer says, were never paid.
Current staff also claim unpaid wages
Staff still at the studio have posted similar accounts. Vladyslav Makarevych, who says he currently works in QA at Gunzilla, wrote that his last salary came in September 2024, leaving him more than six months without pay. He also reported that the company recently changed its corporate registration and cut access to internal tools including work email and Jira. Contractor and animator Rayan Tiraghan says he is owed three months of pay. Concept artist Andrew Snitsar, who claims more than five years at the studio, reports being owed five months of salary.
Kotaku contacted Gunzilla for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Off the Grid and the Game Informer purchase
Gunzilla launched Off the Grid in early access on PC and consoles in October 2024. The game is a third-person battle royale built around an NFT system, allowing players to buy and sell in-game items via cryptocurrency on a blockchain. The feature set is exclusive to the Epic Games Store version of the game; console and Steam releases do not include access to the NFT marketplace.
In March 2025, Gunzilla acquired Game Informer, reviving the publication that GameStop shut down in August 2024. The studio says the outlet operates with full editorial independence from the rest of the company.