{"id":389877,"date":"2026-04-09T13:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:23:12","slug":"off-the-grid-developer-gunzilla-accused-of-failing-to-pay-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389877\/","title":{"rendered":"Off The Grid developer Gunzilla accused of failing to pay staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Gunzilla Games has been publicly accused of failing to pay a number of employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The studio has offices in London, Frankfurt, and Kyiv. It is currently working on Off The Grid, a battle royale shooter that features what <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/gameoffthegrid.com\/faq\/\">Gunzilla describes<\/a> as an &#8220;optional NFT element&#8221; in the form of tradeable items.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3659280\/Off_The_Grid\/\">According to a Steam disclosure<\/a>, Gunzilla also leveraged generative AI tools to produce early concept art, audio samples, and translations throughout production.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Off The Grid remains in early access. Yet, despite the fact that work on the title is ongoing, Gunzilla has purportedly failed to pay some employees for months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\"><a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7447312007797637120\/\">Posting on LinkedIn<\/a>, the studio&#8217;s former head of talent acquisition claimed they had to contend with &#8220;significant salary delays&#8221; spanning months with no clear payment timeline. They described the issue as &#8220;systemic&#8221; and accused Gunzilla CEO Vlad Korolev and CFO Taras Basarab of ignoring direct requests relating to the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\" class=\"RelatedArticle\">Related:<a class=\"RelatedArticle-RelatedContent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/peak-co-developer-landfall-might-finance-your-next-indie-game\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Peak co-developer Landfall might finance your next indie game<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">&#8220;I&#8217;m not the only one. I know many talented colleagues who are in the same &#8216;fog.&#8217; We\u2019re not asking for bonuses, we\u2019re demanding what we have earned,&#8221; they added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">In an update, that person indicated their &#8220;personal matter&#8221; has been resolved. Other former staffers, however, claim to have fallen victim to the same behaviour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">&#8220;I was laid off in the end of August and haven&#8217;t received my last reimbursement (for August) from Gunzilla Games by now,&#8221; <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7447312007797637120?commentUrn=urn:li:comment:(activity:7447312007797637120,7447630135815626752)&amp;dashCommentUrn=urn:li:fsd_comment:(7447630135815626752,urn:li:activity:7447312007797637120)\">wrote a former Gunzilla QA engineer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">&#8220;Gunzilla Games has not paid its employees for many months but still expects them to work. I have personally not been paid since October 2025. Some have had their pay delayed even longer,&#8221; <a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/paul-creamer-729905a7_gunzilla-games-has-not-paid-its-employees-activity-7447614668862435329-zkBP?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAoO_OkB-VfPR7dhiZ-PZ-9sf_EfWliEy1k\">added another former Gunzilla employee<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">&#8220;I foolishly worked for 3 extra months (October, November and December) with assurances that delays in payment would be resolved. Upper management promised that these delays were temporary and growing pains tied to being a new company with a new game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">They specifically claim that Gunzilla CEO Vlad Korolev promised to address the issue in a call with some employees in December 2025, where he purportedly insisted the studio was profitable and told staff to keep the issue under wraps and continue to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Game Developer has reached out to Gunzilla for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gunzilla Games has been publicly accused of failing to pay a number of employees.\u00a0 The studio has offices&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-389877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}