MindsEye Devs Publish Open Letter About Build a Rocket Boy’s Staff Mistreatment
- 93 current and former Build a Rocket Boy staff accused founders Leslie Benzies and Mark Gerhard of toxic management.
- Around 250–300 employees were laid off as leadership ignored staff input and blamed “saboteurs” for the game’s failure.
- Workers call for public apologies and fair redundancies, while MindsEye’s troubled relaunch remains uncertain.
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Bad Bosses, Bad Game
Both current and former employees of Build a Rocket Boy, the UK-based studio behind the troubled MindsEye game, have published an Open Letter via the Game Workers Branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) website, decrying the studio for terrible management.
MindsEye was released in June this year to great fanfare and expectation. Its developer, Build a Rocket Boy (BARB), was founded by Leslie Benzies (Lead Developer for GTA V) and Mark Gerhard (Vice Chairman Of The Board with TIGA, the trade association for video games in the UK). However, the launch went terribly due to the game being published in an unfinished state that didn’t even come close to the hype surrounding it.
The following months have seen other controversies surrounding the game, with the Open Letter being the latest, and one that most clearly blames the founders. “Our experience at the company has been one of burnout, job insecurity, health issues, and the failure of a game that many of us have put years of our lives into,” it reads.
“BARB needs to change. CEOs need to take a backseat and allow the skilled people who remain at the company to forge the path ahead.”
Build a Better Studio, Boys
The Open Letter is signed by 93 employees, some of whom are still with BARB, and it paints a damning picture of a studio run by bosses who won’t take the blame for their actions. Backing this up, Benizes was reported as blaming the game’s failure on “internal and external saboteurs” in July, and this was preceded by Gerhard posting in the game’s Discord that people had been paid to bad-mouth MindsEye.
BARB revealed in June that it was set to lose a chunk of staff, which the Open Letter acknowledges: “We estimate a UK-majority of 250-300 workers across the company have now lost their livelihoods. These layoffs happened because you repeatedly refused to listen to your workforce’s years of experience, resulting in one of the worst video game launches this decade.”
“Employees have received misinformation, been handed dismissal notices with the wrong notice periods, and been put in the wrong teams so that their performances were scored by the wrong people. These and other errors have potentially resulted in the wrongful dismissal of dozens of staff members.”
Gerhard Needs To Try Harder
There’s an irony that Gerhard plays a major role in TIGA, which stands for The Independent Game Developers’ Association, as this organization represents the video game industry in the UK. It’s also well-regarded in terms of how it approaches its mission statement of helping to build up and support the industry, as TIGA has won 28 business awards since 2010, “an achievement which reflects TIGA’s drive for improvement and to meet best practice” as the website puts it.
Despite his outspoken views around MindsEye’s release, Gerhard has remained quiet since. The Open Letter, however, isn’t shy about calling him out for his supposed unprofessional business manner: “Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies, you often refer to your employees as ‘family’. But we ask you to consider; is this really how you treat your own?”
The Open Letter also asks that Gerhard and Benzies offer a public apology to staff; for existing employees on redundancy notice to complete their correct notice period; to offer a meaningful and documented effort to improve working conditions (and acknowledge IWGB as a trade union, which Gerhard as part of TIGA should consider). The final request is for BARB to use external partners to ensure further redundancies are handled fairly.
MindsEye Relaunch
Meanwhile, MindsEye has seen a few updates since release, even though it’s technically waiting for a relaunch. The last main update came on Sept. 25, when extra missions were added to the game, although players have expressed disappointment that these amount to more of the same half-assed content that plagues the base game.
As for the supposed relaunch, some eagle-eyed gamers have made note of the store descriptions for MindsEye changing in subtle ways. Gone are explicit references to Benzies, and in their place is a renewed focus on UGC (user-generated content), which can be created in-game for others to play.
MindsEye is published by IOI Partners, a new publishing arm of IO Interactive, the studio behind the Hitman franchise. There was supposed to be a large crossover update in July with Agent 47 himself appearing in MindsEye, but BARB posted an update at the time about a delay.
“We apologise that the release of the Hitman x MindsEye Mission, originally scheduled for July, has been postponed to a later date. We look forward to delivering this exciting crossover when the time is right and will provide further updates as soon as we’re able.”
For their part, the CEO of IO Interactive, Hakan Abrak said of MindsEye’s disastrous launch: “Well, that was definitely tough, right? It was a tough reception. It wasn’t what they hoped for, and also what we didn’t hope for at IOI Partners.”
As for whether he would continue to support MindsEye as publisher, Abrak added: “IO Interactive will publish our own games internally. IOI Partners? That remains to be seen.”
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