Members of Build a Rocket Boy, the development studio behind the often maligned MindsEye, will be picketing outside the studio’s Edinburgh offices this Saturday, 11th July. The workers are protesting a fan event the developer is hosting this weekend.
The event is described as an “all-expenses-paid” affair where members of the game’s fan community will be flown in to play an updated build of MindsEye with new features.
The workers, who will gather at 10am local time outside the premises, are protesting the studio’s decision to fund the event, especially in the context of the multiple rounds of layoffs that have taken place at Build a Rocket Boy. They’re going to be joined by Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) members, alongside those from other unions and “the wider public”.
A little over one year ago, shortly after the release of MindsEye, BARB initiated a redundancy process, notifying over 100 employees they’re being laid off. In March, the studio conducted another round of lay offs after shipping a major MindsEye update. Then, in May, it let another 170 employees go after shipping a new campaign mission.
That particular mission was pitched as depicting the alleged sabotage the studio experienced during MindsEye’s development. Studio founder Leslie Benzies as well as co-CEO Mark Gerhard alleged “organised espionage and corporate sabotage” have impacted the game’s development, undermining it in the process.
The desire to root out said “saboteurs” has caused the studio to install “invasive surveillance software” Teramind (since been removed) on worker devices, which the IWGB Game Workers Union alledges violates employee data protection and privacy. The union initiated legal action against BARB in April in response.
In October last year, 93 current and former employees of Build a Rocket Boy, along with the Game Workers Branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union, signed a letter calling out studio leadership over “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment”.