MindsEye boss and Build A Rocket Boy studio founder Leslie Benzies alleged in an internal meeting that “saboteurs” within the company were behind the game’s poor reception.
The all-staff meeting took place back in July, following the game’s release and critical panning. A transcript of the meeting has been verified by the BBC.
Benzies said negativity towards the game was “uncalled for” and alleged “internal and external” forces scuppered the game’s launch. As such, “saboteurs” within the company would be rooted out – a message that came just a week after workers were told of redundancies at the company.
“I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this and continue to work here,” said Benzies during the meeting.
As reported by the BBC, staff tell a different story of why the game flopped.
“Leslie never decided what game he wanted to make,” said one former employee named Jamie. “There was no coherent direction”.
Yet Benzies has been accused of micro-managing the project, frequently noting issues as he played the game. These became known as “Leslie tickets” within the studio and were given highest priority.
“It didn’t matter what else you were doing, what else was being worked on,” said former lead data analyst Ben Newbon, “the Leslie ticket had to be taken care of.”
Newbon claimed there was rarely a response when issues were flagged by other employees. “A lot of the points that we were hammering home on were just ignored and just never actioned,” he said. Meanwhile another former employee, Margherita Peloso (who uses gender neutral pronouns) claimed they were “laughed at” in meetings with bosses for speaking out.
The BBC’s report also covers crunch culture in the lead up to launch, with employees expecting a negative reception to the game.
Earlier this month, MindsEye developers signed an open letter against studio execs over “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment”.
In a statement to the BBC, Build A Rocket Boy said staff had “poured passion, creativity, and hard work into our games and our studio”, adding it was “deeply saddened” and “didn’t anticipate having to make redundancies after launch”.
In response to claims of “internal and external” forces working against the studio, Build A Rocket Boy said: “Leslie and the entire senior 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 negative reaction has been blamed on others. Even before the game was released, studio co-CEO Mark Gerhard claimed in an exchange on the MindsEye Discord server that “all the people who reacted negatively were financed by someone”. He later added there was a “concerted effort” against the studio and it “doesn’t take much to guess who”.
MindsEye publisher IO Interactive has distanced itself from the project since launch, with CEO Hakan Abrak stating: “So, IO Interactive will publish our own games internally. IOI Partners? That remains to be seen.”
