Build a Rocket Boy, the developer behind the game MindsEye, has begun a layoff process due to the disastrous launch of the game. According to sources within the studio who spoke to IGN, the layoffs could affect over 100 employees.
An anonymous insider, wishing to remain unnamed for professional reasons, revealed that the exact number of affected employees is still unclear. However, under UK law, when an employer proposes to lay off 100 or more employees within 90 days, a standard 45-day consultation period begins, which started on June 23. Build a Rocket Boy currently employs around 300 people in the UK and about 200 overseas.
IGN has reached out to Build a Rocket Boy for comment.
Employees are anxiously awaiting news about their job status. Meanwhile, there is significant skepticism about whether Build a Rocket Boy can deliver the promised post-launch content roadmap, including the multiplayer mode.
Last week, the studio expressed heartbreak over the issues players encountered in the newly released game and pledged to release a series of patches to fix severe performance problems, bugs, and AI behavior issues. Patch deployment has already begun.
The troubled launch of MindsEye also led to the cancellation of sponsored streams, and some players successfully obtained refunds from Sony, which is usually strict about such matters.
On Steam, while not fully indicative of the game’s current popularity, MindsEye’s peak concurrent player count at launch was 3,302, dropping to a peak of only 130 within 24 hours. At the time of writing, only 52 players remain, with mostly negative user reviews.
MindsEye was originally part of the Everywhere project, a game creation platform led by former Grand Theft Auto design lead Leslie Benzies, envisioned as an “adult Roblox.” Build a Rocket Boy, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, eventually shifted focus to MindsEye, a story-driven action-adventure game, but it has yet to deliver the expected results for the company.
In an internal email reviewed by IGN, co-CEO Mark Gerhard reaffirmed the studio’s commitment to MindsEye but noted that the focus has shifted from intense development and launch phases to sustainable post-launch support.
Gerhard previously made headlines before the launch by claiming that there was an “organized” effort to “smear the game and the studio,” suggesting that negative reviews were paid for or generated by spam bots. This was later denied by IO Interactive, the publisher of the Hitman series.
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