Blockchain Game Studio, Gunzilla, Faces Payment Issues; CEO Calls Out “Haters”

Gunzilla, a studio and publisher co-founded by director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Gran Turismo), hasn’t paid multiple developers for months. However, despite affected staff being vocal about this online, CEO Vlad Korolev has hit back against the “haters” spreading “FUD” (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about the company.

Gunzilla’s main game is Off The Grid, a free-to-play live service shooter that mixes the modular cybernetic limb mechanic of the Surge games with the televised deathmatch idea of The Finals. It’s also a web3-based title that lets players turn in-game items into tradeable NFTs. 

Now, many of the studio’s devs are calling out Gunzilla for, in some cases, delaying payments for six months. Marko Dijan, a former employee, posted on LinkedIn: “Recently, I’ve seen [the] CEO’s public statements suggesting that contractors have been paid on time, and that the concerns being raised are simply ‘fake news’ or spreading FUD from haters. That doesn’t match my experience, as those concerns are raised by other contractors who are in the same situation as I am.”

As part of his response, Korolev has said “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.”

Gunning For Crypto

Off The Grid was launched in late 2024 on consoles and made the jump to Steam in July 2025, where it currently holds a Mixed rating, with many players noting the high number of bots in matches. Korolev posted his rebuttal on X, where other users have called out both his behavior and the lack of real players.

In response to claims of bots, Korolev said “We’re happy to set up a live dashboard so you can see every new player joining in real time. Access will cost you 100k GUN – so you can finally put real weight behind your words.” $GUN is Gunzilla’s crypto token; it’s technically listed on cryptocurrency exchanges but realistically only has any real use in Off The Grid. In short, if people own $100K of $GUN, then Korolev will release player data to prove that there are no bots in his game. As of this writing, this translates to $1,592 (in USD).

Unsurprisingly, people have been quick to point out that asking people for money like this (to further the value of in-game currency) is super shady. “Something a broke scammy company would say: give me more money and I’ll prove you wrong,” and “That 100k is the most stupid idea I have ever heard of – destroys any trust that may have survived” are examples of the pushback.

Trust Issues

Off The Grid is also part of a shared universe with a miniseries of cinematic shorts created by Neill Blomkamp helping to build out the cyberpunk world of the game, and its central location of Teardrop Island. Another Gunzilla developer who hadn’t been paid, Alex Jay Brady, noted on LinkedIn that “I went public and in the end Neill Blomkamp paid me out of his own pocket because he is a sweet man.”

Outside of this current situation, Gunzilla acquired and then resurrected the noted game magazine/site, Game Informer, in March this year. This was shut down in August 2024 by its former parent company, GameStop. Gunzilla brought the entire team back for its relaunch, and made it clear that the magazine should continue as an independent voice. 

This shows that, on one level at least, Gunzilla has a vested interest in giving others in the video game industry the freedom to speak out on subjects they feel are important, making Korolev’s comments against those claiming to not have been paid especially jarring. 

It also doesn’t help that Off the Grid is a blockchain game, which as an idea has historically been met with wariness by gamers. Although players don’t need to engage with this aspect of Off the Grid, it’s still an integral part of the title and linked with Gunzilla’s Gunz platform. This is, in the company’s own words, “the first-ever platform in a triple-A game that gives you the option to turn your items into tradable NFTs inside the game’s marketplace or elsewhere.” 

Gunz is also linked to Gunzilla’s only other game, Technocore, a free-to-play mobile-only title in which players pilot a drone around a map collecting loot boxes, and then unlock them as NFTs. Gunzilla has been quick to point out that it’s not using NFTs as microtransactions in Technocore nor Off The Grid, as the economy is purely player-based. Instead, the company started selling ad space within Off The Grid in February this year, so brands can be displayed via in-game billboards. 

Coming off the back of the Game Informer relaunch, the GI Advertising Network is “a self-serve platform that turns in-game surfaces into programmable, bookable assets. Any developer. Any game. Automated. Imagine every game world with surfaces that generate value. Every developer with access to brand relationships they’d never get on their own.”