Off The Grid: AAA production, a real game before the token, and a CEO who called unpaid staff "haters."
We're continuing our P2E Crypto Games series with Off The Grid, a cyberpunk extraction-royale shooter from Gunzilla Games, co-founded by film director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie) as Chief Creative Officer, with Vlad Korolev as CEO. Real, disclosed genuine strengths: the game shipped with 6 months of live gameplay and over 480 million testnet transactions before its GUN token ever traded, $120 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures, VanEck, and other credible backers, and a Game of the Year win at the Web3-focused 2024 Gam3 Awards. What we don't think should be set aside: GUN launched around $0.09-0.115 in March 2025 and has since fallen over 85-89%, with its FDV peaking near $760M-$1B on only about 6% of supply actually circulating. Real, disclosed, and more serious than a token chart: in April 2026, multiple named current and former employees and contractors publicly reported months of unpaid wages, and CEO Vlad Korolev's public response called critics "haters" spreading "FUD" and offered to sell access to player performance data for cryptocurrency. We weighted all of it below.
Our take, up front: Off The Grid is a free-to-play cyberpunk extraction-royale shooter developed by Gunzilla Games, co-founded by film director Neill Blomkamp, whose credits include District 9, Chappie, and Gran Turismo, serving as Chief Creative Officer, alongside CEO Vlad Korolev. Real, disclosed genuinely strong development pedigree: the broader team draws from Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, and THQ. Real, disclosed genuinely distinctive "game before token" sequencing: Off The Grid had 6 months of live gameplay and over 480 million testnet transactions before its GUN token ever traded anywhere, a real, disclosed contrast to projects that sell tokens against concept art. Real, disclosed credible institutional funding: $120 million raised from Coinbase Ventures, VanEck, Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, and CoinFund. Real, disclosed recognition: the game won Game of the Year at the 2024 Gam3 Awards, a Web3-gaming-specific awards body. Real, disclosed technical foundation: GUNZ, a dedicated Layer 1 built on Avalanche, with mainnet launching March 31, 2025. Real, disclosed thoughtful token design: Gunzilla pledged never to sell NFTs directly, keeping item supply player-driven through extraction gameplay, and committed roughly 30% of gross revenue to GUN buybacks distributed by in-game performance. What we don't think should be set aside: GUN launched around $0.09-0.115 in March 2025 and has since fallen over 85-89% depending on the source and snapshot date, and a detailed 2026 source states its fully diluted valuation peaked near $760 million to $1 billion on only about 6% of total supply actually circulating, a real, disclosed, extreme mismatch between headline valuation and tradable float. Real, disclosed unresolved controversy: a "confidential letter" reportedly sent to private investors around GUN's Binance listing sparked speculation about preferential tokenomics treatment; when asked directly, Gunzilla's own Director of Web3 said he was "not sure" whether the letter was legitimate, a question we found no clear resolution to in our research. Real, disclosed, and more serious than any token chart: in April 2026, multiple named current and former employees and contractors, including animator Paul Kremer, senior game programmer Vladyslav Spitkovskyi, former talent acquisition lead Anna Savina, and senior concept artist Andrews Snitsar, publicly stated they had gone unpaid for months, in at least one case since October 2025, with at least two pursuing formal legal action under EU labor law. CEO Vlad Korolev's public response called the critics "haters" spreading "FUD," framed the delays as ordinary "cost optimization," and separately stated that anyone could access the company's player performance data for "100k GUN," worth roughly $1,700 at the time, a real, disclosed detail we think reflects directly on leadership conduct independent of the game's technical or creative merits. Real, disclosed context: this followed two separate rounds of layoffs in 2025, the second coming just three months after the first, and occurred while Gunzilla was separately promoting its 2025 acquisition of the gaming publication Game Informer. Real, disclosed platform fragmentation: Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox restricted or limited blockchain functionality, meaning full GUNZ wallet and NFT access is only available through the Epic Games Store on PC. We weighted all of it below.
No confirmed direct hack of GUN or GUNZ's own contracts found in our research. Real, disclosed genuinely strong "game-first" sequencing: 6 months of live gameplay and over 480 million testnet transactions preceded the token's launch. Real, disclosed credible institutional backing: $120M from Coinbase Ventures, VanEck, Delphi Digital, and others. What tempers this: a real, disclosed, extreme initial float/FDV mismatch (FDV near $760M-$1B on only ~6% float), and a real, disclosed, unresolved controversy over a "confidential letter" to private investors around GUN's Binance listing, which Gunzilla's own Director of Web3 said he was "not sure" was legitimate when asked directly.
Pros
- No confirmed direct hack of GUN/GUNZ's own contracts found in our research
- The game shipped with real, verified transaction volume before the token ever launched
Cons
- FDV peaked near $760M-$1B on only about 6% of supply actually circulating
- An unresolved, disclosed controversy over a confidential letter to select private investors
Real, disclosed thoughtful design commitments: Gunzilla pledged never to sell NFTs directly, keeping item supply player-driven, and committed roughly 30% of gross revenue to GUN buybacks distributed by in-game performance. What tempers this severely: GUN launched around $0.09-0.115 in March 2025 and has since fallen over 85-89% depending on the source, and its FDV peaked near $760M-$1B on only about 6% of supply actually circulating, a real, disclosed structure that concentrated enormous paper value in a small tradable float.
Pros
- A disclosed ~30% gross-revenue buyback commitment ties token value to real usage
Cons
- GUN is down over 85-89% from its March 2025 launch price
- An extreme, disclosed float/FDV mismatch inflated headline valuation at launch
Real, disclosed named leadership: Vlad Korolev (CEO) and Neill Blomkamp (co-founder, Chief Creative Officer), with real, disclosed AAA-industry team pedigree. What tempers this severely: a real, disclosed, serious April 2026 labor scandal. Multiple named current and former employees and contractors, including Paul Kremer, Vladyslav Spitkovskyi, Anna Savina, and Andrews Snitsar, publicly reported months of unpaid wages, with at least two pursuing formal EU legal action. CEO Vlad Korolev's public response called critics "haters" spreading "FUD" and stated that anyone could access the company's player performance data for "100k GUN," a real, disclosed instance of leadership conduct we weight directly and heavily, independent of the game's technical merits.
Pros
- Named, publicly visible leadership with real, disclosed AAA-industry credentials
Cons
- Multiple named staff publicly reported months of unpaid wages in April 2026
- The CEO's public response called affected workers "haters" spreading "FUD"
- The CEO reportedly offered player data access for cryptocurrency payment
Real, disclosed genuinely strong game design credentials: co-founded by an established film director as Chief Creative Officer, with a real, disclosed Web3-gaming-specific Game of the Year recognition at the 2024 Gam3 Awards, and a promised 60 hours of narrative-driven content bookending an extraction-royale core loop. What tempers this: a detailed source states player numbers "declined significantly" once initial paid-promotion-driven interest dissipated, and Technocore, a companion title, was "called out in player reviews for being a super basic game that only really exists to generate items."
Pros
- Real, credible creative direction from an established film director
- A Web3-gaming Game of the Year recognition and 60 hours of promised narrative content
Cons
- Player numbers declined significantly once paid-promotion-driven interest faded
- The companion title Technocore was criticized directly as existing mainly to generate items
Real, disclosed accessible core structure: free-to-play, with no obvious crypto integration required to simply play in early access. What tempers this: real, disclosed platform fragmentation, Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox restricted or limited blockchain functionality, meaning full GUNZ wallet and NFT access is only available via the Epic Games Store on PC.
Pros
- Free-to-play; no crypto knowledge required simply to play the core game
Cons
- Full wallet and NFT access is limited to the Epic Games Store specifically
Real, disclosed free-to-play core game. What tempers this: the marketplace for trading extracted items is gated behind a roughly $12/month OTG Pro subscription, a real, disclosed recurring cost specifically to participate in the token/NFT economy. Real, disclosed marketing-transparency concern: sponsored posts from streamers advertising the game "consistently failed to disclose its status as a blockchain-integrated title."
Pros
- The core game itself remains free-to-play without a subscription
Cons
- A ~$12/month subscription gates marketplace access specifically
- Sponsored streamer content reportedly did not disclose the game's blockchain integration
Real, disclosed genuinely distinctive platform ambition: the GUNZ SDK and white-label tools are designed to let other studios launch their own game economies on the same infrastructure, with a companion title (Technocore) already live.
Pros
- A genuinely distinctive multi-game platform ambition beyond a single title
Cons
- The companion title built on this platform has been criticized as existing mainly to generate items
Access only through the official site or Epic Games Store, and weigh the studio's own conduct as its own category of risk.
Given the real, disclosed April 2026 labor dispute and the CEO's own public conduct in response to it, treat this as a distinct, disclosed risk factor separate from the game's technical quality or token design, since it speaks directly to how the studio treats its own obligations under pressure.
A genuinely well-built game, sitting under a leadership conduct problem the token chart doesn't even capture.
We want to be precise about why this is our lowest score in the series so far, because it isn't really about the game. Off The Grid did something most of this category never manages: it shipped a real, working, AAA-adjacent shooter with hundreds of millions of real testnet transactions before its token ever traded, backed by credible institutional money and a genuinely accomplished creative director. If this review stopped at gameplay and tokenomics, it would land somewhere in the middle of this series, not the bottom. It doesn't stop there, because in April 2026 multiple named employees and contractors said, in public, on the record, that they hadn't been paid in months, and the person running the company responded by calling them liars spreading "FUD" and, separately, offered to sell access to player data for crypto. That's not a smart contract failing. That's not a hype cycle correcting. That's a leadership team's own public conduct, and we think it deserves to weigh on this score as heavily as any hack would, because it tells you something a security audit can't: how this studio behaves when it's under real pressure and thinks no one serious is watching.
The scorecard above is deliberately general. Whether Off The Grid is right for you depends heavily on which of these you already are.
The shooter fan who wants genuinely credible AAA production values and creative direction, engaged with strictly for free
This is exactly where Off The Grid's real, disclosed development pedigree delivers value without financial exposure.
The reader who separates the game's technical and creative quality from the studio's own disclosed conduct as distinct facts
Both are real; treating one as canceling out the other would miss what each actually tells you.
The prospective GUN holder who checks for resolution of the April 2026 labor dispute before treating it as settled history
Given the real, disclosed ongoing legal proceedings, this situation may not be fully resolved as of any given reading.
Anyone who weighs a studio's treatment of its own workers as a meaningful factor in deciding where to spend money or attention
The real, disclosed April 2026 wage dispute and the CEO's public response are directly relevant facts for this reader.
The scorecard covers the headline judgment calls. These four tables cover the specifics we didn't want to bury in prose; the April 2026 labor dispute timelined precisely, the float/FDV mismatch explained, GUN's price chronology, and platform access compared across storefronts.
The April 2026 labor dispute, timelined
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Gunzilla conducts two separate rounds of layoffs, the second coming just three months after the first |
| Apr 7, 2026 | Former talent acquisition lead Anna Savina publicly details unpaid compensation on LinkedIn |
| Early Apr 2026 | Additional named staff, including Paul Kremer, Vladyslav Spitkovskyi, and Andrews Snitsar, report months of unpaid wages, in one case since October 2025 |
| Apr 9, 2026 | CEO Vlad Korolev posts a public response calling critics "haters" spreading "FUD" and referencing crunch and cost optimization |
| Ongoing | At least two affected individuals pursue formal compensation claims under EU labor law |
We're naming the individuals here because their claims are public, on the record, and specifically attributed by name in our sources; this is a documented labor dispute, not an anonymous rumor.
The float/FDV mismatch, explained
| Metric | Disclosed figure |
|---|---|
| Peak fully diluted valuation (FDV) | Roughly $760 million to $1 billion |
| Circulating float at that valuation | Approximately 6% of total supply |
| Max supply | 10 billion GUN |
| Circulating supply (2026 snapshot) | Approximately 2.26 billion GUN |
A headline FDV built on a small tradable float can create an inflated sense of the token's real, immediate market value; we think this distinction is worth making explicit rather than letting the larger number stand unqualified.
GUN, from launch to today
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Mar 31, 2025 | GUNZ mainnet launches on Avalanche; GUN begins trading around $0.09-0.115 |
| 2025 | A "confidential letter" to private investors around GUN's Binance listing sparks unresolved speculation about preferential terms |
| Apr 2026 | GUN is reported down approximately 86-89% from its launch price amid the labor dispute |
| Recent snapshot | GUN trades in the roughly $0.006-0.016 range depending on the exact date and source |
We found a real, disclosed range rather than a single precise current price across our sources; every figure we found confirms a decline exceeding 85% from launch.
Platform access, compared across storefronts
| Platform | Blockchain feature access |
|---|---|
| Epic Games Store (PC) | Full GUNZ wallet and NFT marketplace access |
| Steam | Blockchain functionality restricted or limited |
| PlayStation | Blockchain functionality restricted or limited |
| Xbox | Blockchain functionality restricted or limited |
This uneven access means a player's actual experience of the game's Web3 features depends heavily on which storefront they choose, a real, disclosed fragmentation worth knowing before buying in on a specific platform.
We don't just want to hand you our number; we want to show you how it sits next to what other review desks and comparison sites have published. We're flagging directly that most general P2E coverage of this game was published before, or without emphasis on, the April 2026 labor dispute, and doesn't weight it as heavily as our methodology does.
Our score lands significantly below the aggregated industry average; most sources we found credit the game's genuinely strong production values and "game before token" launch sequencing, while giving little to no weight to the April 2026 labor dispute and the CEO's own public conduct in response to it.
| Source | Score | Type |
|---|
Scores compiled by our editorial team from publicly available reviews as of August 2026. "Editorial estimate" means the outlet didn't publish a single numeric score, so we converted their published verdict and sentiment into a comparable 100-point figure. Verify current figures directly with each source before citing them elsewhere.
In April 2026, multiple named current and former employees and contractors publicly stated they had gone unpaid for months, in at least one case since October 2025. CEO Vlad Korolev acknowledged that payments could be delayed, attributing it to cost optimization, while disputing the framing of the criticism.
Vlad Korolev posted a public response calling critics "haters" spreading "FUD," and separately stated that anyone could access the company's player performance data for "100k GUN," worth roughly $1,700 at the time.
No confirmed direct hack of GUN or the GUNZ blockchain was found in our research. The game's most serious disclosed problems relate to labor practices and tokenomics structure, not a smart-contract exploit.
GUN launched around $0.09-0.115 in March 2025 and has since fallen over 85-89% depending on the source and snapshot date.
A letter reportedly sent to some of Gunzilla's private investors around GUN's Binance listing sparked speculation about preferential tokenomics terms. When asked directly, Gunzilla's own Director of Web3 said he was "not sure" whether the letter was legitimate; we found no clear resolution to this question.
Gunzilla Games, co-founded by film director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie) as Chief Creative Officer, with Vlad Korolev serving as CEO.
Yes, the core game is free-to-play. Trading extracted items on the marketplace requires an OTG Pro subscription costing roughly $12/month.
No. Full GUNZ wallet and NFT marketplace access is only available through the Epic Games Store on PC. Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox restrict or limit blockchain functionality.
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