MindsEye boss and founder of Build A Rocket Boy studio Leslie Benzies claimed during an internal meeting that “saboteurs” within the company were to blame for the game’s poor reception.
The all-staff meeting took place in July, after the game’s release and critical panning. A transcript of the meeting has been verified by the BBC.
Benzies said the negativity towards the game was “unwarranted” and that “internal and external” forces allegedly derailed the game’s launch. This would eliminate “saboteurs” within the company – a message that came just a week after workers were informed of layoffs at the company.
“I find it disgusting that someone could sit among us and behave like this and continue to work here,” Benzies said during the meeting.
As the BBC reports, staff tell a different story about why the game failed.
“Leslie never decided what game he wanted to make,” said Jamie, a former employee. “There was no consistent direction.”
Yet Benzies was accused of micromanaging the project, frequently noting issues while he was playing the game. These became known as “Leslie tickets” within the studio and were given the highest priority.
“No matter what else you were doing, what else you were working on,” said Ben Newbon, a former senior data analyst, “you had to take care of the Leslie ticket.”
Newbon said there was rarely a response when problems were reported by other employees. “A lot of the points that we were emphasizing were just ignored and just never implemented,” he said. Meanwhile, another former employee, Margherita Peloso (who uses gender-neutral pronouns) claimed they were made fun of in meetings with bosses for speaking up.
The BBC report also covers crunch culture in the run-up to launch, with employees expecting a negative reception to the game.
Earlier this month, MindsEye developers signed an open letter against studio executives for “long-standing disrespect and mistreatment.”
In a statement to the BBC, Build A Rocket Boy said staff had “put passion, creativity and hard work into our games and studio”, adding that it was “deeply saddened” and “does not anticipate having to make any post-launch layoffs”.
In response to claims that “internal and external” forces were working against the studio, Build A Rocket Boy said: “Leslie and the entire management team take full responsibility for the initial launch (of MindsEye). The version of the game that was released did not reflect the experience our community deserved. »
This isn’t the first time the game’s backlash has been blamed on others. Even before the game’s release, the studio’s co-CEO, Mark Gerhard, claimed during an exchange on the MindsEye Discord server that “everyone who reacted negatively was funded by someone”. He later added that there had been a “concerted effort” against the studio and that it “didn’t take much to guess who.”
MindsEye’s publisher, IO Interactive, has distanced itself from the project since its launch, with CEO Hakan Abrak saying: “So IO Interactive will publish our own games internally. IOI partners? That remains to be seen.”
