Nearly 100 current and former developers at Mindseye studio Build a Rocket Boy (BARB) have signed a scathing open letter, condemning the leadership for both its handling of the game and treatment of workers.
Published via the Game Workers Branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), the letter claims there was “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment” of staff by studio heads Leslie Benzies and Mark Gerhard. It specifically sites three major issues during development and post-release: lack of transparency and communication, unbearable levels of overtime, and disastrous handling of redundancies (with nearly 250-300 devs now out of a livelihood).
Mindseye is the first game from Build a Rocket Boy and was published by Hitman studio IO Interactive — launching earlier this year in June. It was an unequivocally disastrous launch, met with terrible reception by both critics and players alike, so much so that the actor behind the main character... Read more