Construct A Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based developer of MindsEye, has issued at-risk of redundancy emails to its round 300-strong UK workforce following the disastrous launch of the sport.
Sources accustomed to the goings on contained in the embattled studio instructed IGN at-risk emails have been additionally despatched to employees 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 special recreation — a fast-paced FPS referred to as Ascendant which was meant to return out this yr.
Final month, IGN reported that BARB had begun a redundancy course of following the discharge of MindsEye. The usual 45-day session course of kicked off on June 23, which in accordance with UK legislation is triggered when an employer proposes 100 or extra redundancies inside a 90-day interval. IGN understands Construct A Rocket Boy at the moment has round 300 UK staff, with 200 overseas.
On the time, BARB issued a press release confirming the redundancy course of, insisting the cuts will let the studio “deal with delivering ongoing updates and efficiency optimization for MindsEye, whereas additionally guaranteeing the long-term success of Construct A Rocket Boy’s future ambitions.”
Quickly after MindsEye launched, BARB mentioned it was “heartbroken” over the problems gamers had confronted with the sport, and promised to launch a sequence of patches to repair the numerous efficiency issues, glitches, and AI conduct bugs. Rollout of these patches has begun.
All of the whereas, MindsEye’s troubled launch noticed the developer cancel sponsored streams, with studies of gamers securing refunds, even from the usually cussed Sony, surfacing on-line.
On Steam, which doesn’t paint the entire image of MindsEye’s present reputation, the sport hit a peak concurrent participant depend of 3,302 on launch, however had a 24-hour peak of simply 46 gamers. On the time of this text’s publication, 26 folks have been enjoying on Steam, the place MindsEye has a ‘principally unfavorable’ consumer overview ranking.
Story-driven motion journey recreation MindsEye was initially designed to be a component of All over the place, the ‘Roblox for adults’ creation platform led by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies. BARB ultimately switched to deal with MindsEye, but it surely has so-far did not do the enterprise for the corporate.
In the meantime, BARB sources instructed IGN that Benzies lastly addressed employees following the discharge of MindsEye in a quick video name yesterday, July 2. In response to two folks current who requested to not be named in an effort to defend their careers, Benzies insisted BARB would bounce again and relaunch MindsEye, blaming the studio and the sport’s struggles on inner and exterior saboteurs, amongst different issues.
The feedback rekindle reminiscences of these issued by Mark Gerhard forward of the discharge of MindsEye. The co-CEO hit the headlines for claiming there was a “concerted effort” by some to “trash the sport and the studio,” suggesting folks have been being paid or utilizing spam bots to submit unfavorable feedback. The boss of writer IO Interactive, which makes the Hitman video games, subsequently issued a denial.
BARB sources instructed IGN that internally, there’s a want for a MindsEye redemption arc that will ultimately see it develop into profitable for the studio. However as employees face an anxious wait to find their destiny, there are severe 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 launch to comply with. “We’ve watched lots of of hours of gameplay footage and reviewed participant suggestions throughout a number of channels to prioritize probably the most urgent points and enhance the expertise for all our console gamers,” the studio mentioned.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.