Build A Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based developer of MindsEye, has issued at-risk emails to its round 300-strong UK workforce following the disastrous launch of the game.
Sources acquainted with the goings on inside the embattled studio instructed IGN at-risk emails had been additionally despatched to workers at PlayFusion, which BARB acquired late 2024. PlayFusion, whose CEO Mark Gerhard turned co-CEO of BARB as half of the buyout, is engaged on a completely different game — a fast-paced FPS known as Ascendant which was meant to return out this 12 months.
Last month, IGN reported that BARB had begun a redundancy process following the release of MindsEye. The commonplace 45-day session course of kicked off on June 23, which based on UK law is triggered when an employer proposes 100 or more redundancies inside a 90-day period. IGN understands Build A Rocket Boy at present has round 300 UK staff, with 200 overseas.
At the time, BARB issued a assertion confirming the redundancy course of, insisting the cuts will let the studio “focus on delivering ongoing updates and performance optimization for MindsEye, while also ensuring the long-term success of Build A Rocket Boy’s future ambitions.”
Soon after MindsEye launched, BARB said it was “heartbroken” over the issues players had faced with the game, and promised to release a collection of patches to repair the numerous efficiency issues, glitches, and AI habits bugs. Rollout of these patches has begun.
All the whereas, MindsEye’s troubled launch noticed the developer cancel sponsored streams, with stories of gamers securing refunds, even from the usually cussed Sony, surfacing online.
On Steam, which doesn’t paint the entire image of MindsEye’s present recognition, the game hit a peak concurrent participant rely of 3,302 on launch, however had a 24-hour peak of simply 46 gamers. At the time of this text’s publication, 26 people had been taking part in on Steam, the place MindsEye has a 'largely destructive' consumer review score.
Story-driven action journey game MindsEye was initially designed to be a half of Everywhere, the ‘Roblox for adults’ creation platform led by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies. BARB ultimately switched to concentrate on MindsEye, but it surely has so-far didn’t do the business for the corporate.
Meanwhile, BARB sources instructed IGN that Benzies lastly addressed workers following the release of MindsEye in a transient video call yesterday, July 2. According to 2 people current who requested to not be named with the intention to defend their careers, Benzies insisted BARB would bounce back and relaunch MindsEye, blaming the studio and the game’s struggles on inside and exterior saboteurs, amongst different issues.
The feedback rekindle recollections of these issued by Mark Gerhard forward of the release of MindsEye. The co-CEO hit the headlines for claiming there was a "concerted effort" by some to "trash the game and the studio," suggesting people had been being paid or utilizing spam bots to publish destructive feedback. The boss of writer IO Interactive, which makes the Hitman video games, subsequently issued a denial.
BARB sources instructed IGN that internally, there may be a want for a MindsEye redemption arc that may ultimately see it develop into profitable for the studio. But as workers face an anxious wait to find their destiny, there are critical questions over whether or not BARB will be capable to fulfill its post-launch roadmap for content material, together with the promised multiplayer mode, on time.
Earlier this week, BARB launched MindsEye’s third post-release replace on console, with a PC release to observe. “We’ve watched hundreds of hours of gameplay footage and reviewed player feedback across multiple channels to prioritize the most pressing issues and improve the experience for all our console players,” the studio mentioned.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].