“Pain and stress” - 93 MindsEye developers accuse the studio of disrespect and mistreatment

If further updates are planned, MindsEye still finds itself in a complicated situation, having been abandoned by players. And that's not all, as 93 developers have decided to sign an open letter accusing Leslie Benzies of bad management and bad working conditions. 

With the help of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, developers accuse Build A Rocket Boy management of a lack of transparency within the company and a huge lack of communication. In addition, crunch periods, which reportedly lasted after the launch of the game MindsEye at a rate of eight unpaid overtime hours per week, have been reported.

There have also been more than 250 layoffs in recent months. And these have been poorly managed, with inaccurate information and an erroneous assessment of their skills in relation to their position.

In the face of these serious accusations, Spring McparlinJones, chair of the IWGB's video game workers' committee, told IGN: 

"The treatment that workers at Build A Rocket Boy have been facing in the past twelve months has been shocking. They have been routinely belittled, cheated, and manipulated by the company they dedicated years of their lives to. It's scary to think that 10 years ago, other executives like Leslie Benzies and Mark Gerhard could treat their workers like this and face zero repercussions. I'm proud to say that that's not the case anymore.” 

In addition, former employee Ben Newbon states that the studio refused to listen to the developers, leading to the failure of the game MindsEye: 

"Even before the disastrous launch of MindsEye, staff had suffered months of crunch, resulting in some horrific mental and even physical illnesses, beyond the typical widespread burnout. Studio leadership have chosen not to take responsibility for the game's failure and instead blamed saboteurs, as if individual employees or online influencers could have caused this. The arrogance of leadership to believe they can act with impunity throughout development and the following redundancies has pushed myself and many former and continuing employees to take a stand.”

The studio has not yet commented on the publication of this letter. And to accentuate the unease surrounding this failure, the actor who plays Jacob Diaz recently spoke out about it, expressing his fears.