Developers on MindsEye who have lost their jobs are planning a protest outside of Build A Rocket Boy’s office in Edinburgh, Scotland, over what they have described as an “all-expenses-paid playtest day.” The IWGB Game Workers Union, the same union representing several fired GTA VI developers, has stated that the protest will take place on Saturday, July 11th, at 11 AM locally, alleging that the planned protest will coincide with the studio flying in fans to try out the new features being added to MindsEye.
In particular, the union has stated it plans to protest the studio for deciding to fund such an event after holding a round of mass lay-offs last year. Alongside this, they are also protesting disputes between workers and the studio concerning claims of invasive employee surveillance, the blacklisting of union members, and the overall handling of redundancies.
This is the latest in a long list of complications that have arisen for the developer following the release of their MindsEye last year. Shortly following the title’s disastrous launch. The game failed to gain any traction owing to a plethora of bugs and glitches, at times making it unplayable, which soon gave way to rumors that the studio would be sending out redundancy emails to its then-300-person UK workforce. While we do not have an exact number, it was reported that the company fired somewhere between 170 and 250 of those employees at the time. The company then held more layoffs earlier this year.
A story-driven action game being headed by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies, the title was initially supposed to be part of their Everywhere creation tool before shifting focus. The studio attempted to give the game a bit of a relaunch with their “Blacklisted” update, though the player counters don’t seem to have shifted much. Currently, MindsEye has seen a 24-hour peak concurrent count of about 48 players, which, while it isn’t the full picture, does give an indicator as to how the title has performed.
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