In Brief:
Multiple current and former Gunzilla Games employees have publicly posted on LinkedIn, alleging that the studio has failed to pay salaries for up to 5 months.
The accusations follow two rounds of layoffs in 2025 and reports of pay delays dating back to June 2025, with Ukrainian and EU-based contractors reportedly hit hardest.
Gunzilla has received over $100 million in investment since its founding and acquired Game Informer magazine in early 2025, but its flagship title, Off the Grid, has not met player expectations.
Employees at Gunzilla Games are speaking out publicly about months of unpaid wages, with multiple staff members posting on LinkedIn accusing the studio of failing to meet payroll obligations while still expecting work to continue. Insider Gaming first reported the allegations on April 8.
One employee’s post drew responses from several colleagues confirming similar situations. Oleksandr Linovichenko, a principal hard surface artist, wrote that he hadn’t received payments for August and September. Antron Palii, a senior QA engineer, said he’d gone five months without a paycheck. Palii added that when he raised concerns with the CEO at an in-person meeting and asked for proof that he’d be paid, the CEO promised, in front of colleagues, to settle the debt and end the working relationship within a day. Instead, Palii said, the company revoked his access and didn’t pay.
A now-retired senior VFX animator posted separately that the studio had not paid employees for many months but still expected them to work. A pattern that predates the LinkedIn posts.
The salary issues aren’t new. A post on the GameDev DOU forum in February 2026 alleged that payment problems at Gunzilla had been ongoing since June 2025, with some laid-off employees still owed final payments.
Glassdoor reviews corroborate the pattern, with anonymous reviewers citing unpaid wages of four to six months for EU contractors and Ukrainian staff. Some reviews noted that Frankfurt-based employees were being paid on time, while others were not. The company’s Glassdoor rating is 2.4 out of 5, based on 70 reviews.
Only 38% of employees would recommend working there.$100 million in funding, two rounds of layoffs. Gunzilla Games has raised over $100 million since its founding in 2020. The Frankfurt-headquartered studio, which also has offices in Kyiv and London, is behind Off the Grid, a free-to-play cyberpunk battle royale with an integrated NFT marketplace built on the GUN token.
The game launched in early access with paid streamer campaigns featuring Ninja, TimTheTatman, and Scump, but player numbers have apparently fallen short of expectations. The game’s full launch date has not been announced. The studio went through two rounds of layoffs within three months in 2025, with affected staff posting on LinkedIn about their departures.
The GUN token expanded from Avalanche to Solana around the same time. In early 2025, Gunzilla acquired Game Informer magazine and its editorial team from GameStop for an undisclosed sum. Gunzilla did not publicly respond to the salary allegations at the time of reporting.
