{"id":2033294,"date":"2026-07-08T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033294"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:00:38","slug":"workers-at-mindseye-studio-protesting-controversial-fan-event-this-weekend-after-multiple-rounds-of-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033294","title":{"rendered":"Workers at MindsEye studio protesting controversial fan event this weekend after multiple rounds of layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/mindseye\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      MindsEye<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Workers at MindsEye studio protesting controversial fan event this weekend after multiple rounds of layoffs<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Barbed comments.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/wp-mindseye-04.webp?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"wp-mindseye-04.webp\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Build A Rocket Boy<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sherif Saed avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/IMG_1950_Uy1XomJ.JPG?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1638\" height=\"1346\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Sherif Saed avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"IMG_1950_Uy1XomJ.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1638\" height=\"1346\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/sherif-saed\">Sherif Saed<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Senior Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-07-08T15:00:38+00:00\">July 8, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-build-a-rocket-boy-protests-fan-event?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          14 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"1f15923b-3f2a-4e98-b438-353ad6ac6bae\" data-name=\"MindsEye\" data-follow-text=\"Follow MindsEye\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following MindsEye\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow MindsEye\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following MindsEye\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow MindsEye\" title=\"Follow MindsEye\"><br \/>\n  Follow MindsEye<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Members of Build a Rocket Boy, the development studio behind the often maligned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/mindseye\">MindsEye<\/a>, will be picketing outside the studio&#8217;s Edinburgh offices this Saturday, 11th July. The workers are protesting a fan event the developer is hosting this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The event is described as an &#8220;all-expenses-paid&#8221; affair where members of the game&#8217;s fan community will be flown in to play an updated build of MindsEye with new features.<\/p>\n<p>The workers, who will gather at 10am local time outside the premises, are protesting the studio&#8217;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&#8217;re going to be joined by Independent Workers&#8217; Union of Great Britain (IWGB) members, alongside those from other unions and &#8220;the wider public&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A screenshot of MindsEye, showing a cyborg mercenary holding a woman hostage.\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1_QKgfExj.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"2560\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A screenshot of MindsEye, showing a cyborg mercenary holding a woman hostage.\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"1_QKgfExj.jpg\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"2560\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer \/ IO Interactive Partners<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A little over one year ago, shortly after the release of MindsEye, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developer-reportedly-prepping-for-layoffs-after-botched-launch\">BARB initiated a redundancy process, notifying over 100 employees they&#8217;re being laid off<\/a>. In March, the studio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-hit-with-layoffs-again-co-ceo-blames-espionage-and-sabotage\">conducted another round of lay offs after shipping a major MindsEye update<\/a>. Then, in May, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-may-2026-layoffs\">it let another 170 employees go after shipping a new campaign mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>That particular mission was pitched as depicting the alleged sabotage the studio experienced during MindsEye&#8217;s development. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-boss-alleges-saboteurs-within-the-company-were-behind-its-poor-reception-according-to-new-report\">Studio founder Leslie Benzies<\/a> as well as co-CEO Mark Gerhard alleged &#8220;organised espionage and corporate sabotage&#8221; have impacted the game&#8217;s development, undermining it in the process.<\/p>\n<p>The desire to root out said &#8220;saboteurs&#8221; has caused the studio to install &#8220;invasive surveillance software&#8221; Teramind (since been removed) on worker devices, which the IWGB Game Workers Union alledges violates employee data protection and privacy. <a href=\"https:\/\/iwgb.org.uk\/en\/post\/workers-at-build-a-rocket-boy-take-action-over-data-privacy-violations-from-management-2\/\">The union initiated legal action against BARB in April<\/a> in response.<\/p>\n<p>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, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developers-sign-damning-open-letter-against-studio-execs-over-longstanding-disrespect-and-mistreatment-following-games-disastrous-launch\">signed a letter calling out studio leadership over &#8220;longstanding disrespect and mistreatment&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Members of Build a Rocket Boy, the development studio behind the often maligned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/mindseye\">MindsEye<\/a>, will be picketing outside the studio&#8217;s Edinburgh offices this Saturday, 11th July. The workers are protesting a fan event the developer is hosting this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The event is described as an &#8220;all-expenses-paid&#8221; affair where members of the game&#8217;s fan community will be flown in to play an updated build of MindsEye with new features.<\/p>\n<p>The workers, who will gather at 10am local time outside the premises, are protesting the studio&#8217;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&#8217;re going to be joined by Independent Workers&#8217; Union of Great Britain (IWGB) members, alongside those from other unions and &#8220;the wider public&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A screenshot of MindsEye, showing a cyborg mercenary holding a woman hostage.\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1_QKgfExj.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"2560\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A screenshot of MindsEye, showing a cyborg mercenary holding a woman hostage.\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"1_QKgfExj.jpg\" height=\"1440\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"2560\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer \/ IO Interactive Partners<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A little over one year ago, shortly after the release of MindsEye, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developer-reportedly-prepping-for-layoffs-after-botched-launch\">BARB initiated a redundancy process, notifying over 100 employees they&#8217;re being laid off<\/a>. In March, the studio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-hit-with-layoffs-again-co-ceo-blames-espionage-and-sabotage\">conducted another round of lay offs after shipping a major MindsEye update<\/a>. Then, in May, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-may-2026-layoffs\">it let another 170 employees go after shipping a new campaign mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>That particular mission was pitched as depicting the alleged sabotage the studio experienced during MindsEye&#8217;s development. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-boss-alleges-saboteurs-within-the-company-were-behind-its-poor-reception-according-to-new-report\">Studio founder Leslie Benzies<\/a> as well as co-CEO Mark Gerhard alleged &#8220;organised espionage and corporate sabotage&#8221; have impacted the game&#8217;s development, undermining it in the process.<\/p>\n<p>The desire to root out said &#8220;saboteurs&#8221; has caused the studio to install &#8220;invasive surveillance software&#8221; Teramind (since been removed) on worker devices, which the IWGB Game Workers Union alledges violates employee data protection and privacy. <a href=\"https:\/\/iwgb.org.uk\/en\/post\/workers-at-build-a-rocket-boy-take-action-over-data-privacy-violations-from-management-2\/\">The union initiated legal action against BARB in April<\/a> in response.<\/p>\n<p>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, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/mindseye-developers-sign-damning-open-letter-against-studio-execs-over-longstanding-disrespect-and-mistreatment-following-games-disastrous-launch\">signed a letter calling out studio leadership over &#8220;longstanding disrespect and mistreatment&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News MindsEye Workers at MindsEye studio protesting controversial fan event this weekend after multiple rounds of layoffs Barbed comments. Image credit: Build A Rocket Boy News by Sherif Saed Senior Contributor Published on July 8, 2026 14 comments Follow MindsEye Members of Build a Rocket Boy, the development studio behind the often maligned MindsEye, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2033294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2033294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2033294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2033294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2033294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}