Build A Rocket Boy staff – current and former – protested outside the studio’s Edinburgh headquarters over the weekend after the company flew fans in and put them up in accommodation to playtest new MindsEye features, with the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) condemning the event as an “extravagant” misuse of funds that came directly on the heels of mass redundancies, as reported by Push Square.
Here’s the context: MindsEye launched to a commercially and critically disastrous reception, and BARB has laid off hundreds of workers following the game’s dismal launch. The studio has also been the subject of serious internal disputes – workers backed by the IWGB previously forced the company to halt its use of invasive surveillance software installed on office computers without proper staff notification, a dispute that has since escalated into ongoing legal action. IO Interactive is not involved with the game in any official capacity, leaving BARB self-publishing, after publishing duties were shifted away from IO Interactive. The labor unrest at BARB fits a broader pattern of organized action across the industry – Bethesda workers staged a similar protest over Microsoft Gaming layoffs, and Rockstar’s developers have recently moved toward unionization amid franchise development pressure.
The weekend playtest introduced a new in-game mission called Blacklisted, framed by studio leadership as an exposé of alleged saboteurs responsible for MindsEye‘s failure. Former staffer Isaac Hudd spoke outside BARB‘s offices and called the mission a “leather-clad, sexist stereotype,” according to the Push Square report. The event drew an immediate and pointed response from both the union and the people who built the game.
Honestly, the optics here are about as bad as it gets. Flying fans in on the company’s tab – covering travel and accommodation – while the workers who actually shipped the game are either freshly unemployed or watching from the pavement outside is not a communications miscalculation. It is a statement of priorities, and the workers are reading it exactly the way it was written. The Blacklisted mission framing compounds it: rather than accounting for a dismal launch, studio leadership is apparently doubling down on a narrative that shifts blame outward. That posture, combined with the surveillance software dispute and two rounds of layoffs, is why this has moved from a workplace grievance into street-level protest.
IWGB Game Workers Branch chair Spring McParlin-Jones said in a press release: “This extravagant playtest event is a waste of money, and a kick in the teeth for the fired workers who are seeing fans brought in to do jobs that would otherwise have been theirs. The members teaming up to fight back are an inspiration. They already forced BARB to stop spying on them with invasive surveillance software. Now, refusing to take their foot off the pedal, they are continuing to stand up to these rogue bosses both in the courts and on the streets.”
Former employee Ben Newbon was equally direct, stating: “Today’s playtest is little more than a grandstanding gesture from managers who continue to treat both the company and its employees as props to support their own ambitions. Their conduct, both before and since the disastrous launch of MindsEye, makes a mockery of the sweat, skill, and dedication that we poured into making their vision come to life.”
What remains unclear is how much runway BARB has left to sustain any version of a MindsEye comeback. The studio is now self-publishing, is in active legal disputes with its own workforce, and is staging fan events after eliminating the staff who would ordinarily run them. None of that points to a stable operation. The parallels to studios where labor action directly disrupted development timelines are worth keeping in mind – protracted disputes of this kind rarely resolve quickly, and the courts are still involved.
What to watch: The legal proceedings around the surveillance software allegations are the most consequential near-term signal. A ruling or settlement against BARB would significantly constrain the studio’s ability to operate and hire in the UK market. On the product side, watch whether the post-launch update cadence continues or stalls – it will be the clearest indicator of whether enough staff remain to keep MindsEye on any kind of life support.
Do former BARB employees have your sympathy, or do you think the studio’s handling of the situation post-launch has been too far gone to repair regardless? Let us know in the comments, and follow our ongoing coverage of labor action and studio closures across the industry.
