TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 1,971
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
This would all be kind of amusing if it wasn't for the facts that more game developers are losing their jobs.
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The CEO of MindsEye developer Build a Rocket Boy says the studio now has "overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage" that torpedoed the game's launch, and is pursuing legal action as a result. Unfortunately, the enduring impact of those underhanded actions means the studio is being forced to impose another round of layoffs.
"As leaders we take responsibility for the outcomes of our projects and the decisions that follow," Mark Gerhard wrote in a message posted to LinkedIn. "At the same time, the launch period was affected by factors beyond normal operational challenges and competitive environment.
"Over the past months we have been working with external partners and legal advisors to investigate the criminal activity that took place around our launch. That work has taken far longer than expected, but it has now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving toward prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet."
Pointing the finger at a shadowy conspiracy doesn't really strike me as "taking responsibility," but this isn't the first time Gerhard has thrown around these bizarre claims. Ahead of MindsEye's launch last year, he said a "concerted effort" was being made by unnamed parties to trash the game, which included "bot farms posting negative comments and dislikes," an allegation repeated not long after the game's release by studio founder Leslie Benzies. In February of this year, Gerhard said again that a "very big American company" had spent over €1 million on a smear campaign targeting MindsEye.
MindsEye developers, on the other hand, pointed the failure finger squarely at studio leadership: Brutal crunch, gross mismanagement, and a lack of "coherent direction." Publisher IO Interactive also rejected the idea of external saboteurs damaging MindsEye, and later suggested that its experience with the game—the first to be published under its IOI Partners program—had left it uncertain about doing it again.
There's also no getting past the awkward fact that MindsEye is just not a good game. There's plenty of evidence to that effect, but I think my favorite has to be this "official gameplay teaser," which Build a Rock...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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The CEO of MindsEye developer Build a Rocket Boy says the studio now has "overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage" that torpedoed the game's launch, and is pursuing legal action as a result. Unfortunately, the enduring impact of those underhanded actions means the studio is being forced to impose another round of layoffs.
"As leaders we take responsibility for the outcomes of our projects and the decisions that follow," Mark Gerhard wrote in a message posted to LinkedIn. "At the same time, the launch period was affected by factors beyond normal operational challenges and competitive environment.
"Over the past months we have been working with external partners and legal advisors to investigate the criminal activity that took place around our launch. That work has taken far longer than expected, but it has now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving toward prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet."
Pointing the finger at a shadowy conspiracy doesn't really strike me as "taking responsibility," but this isn't the first time Gerhard has thrown around these bizarre claims. Ahead of MindsEye's launch last year, he said a "concerted effort" was being made by unnamed parties to trash the game, which included "bot farms posting negative comments and dislikes," an allegation repeated not long after the game's release by studio founder Leslie Benzies. In February of this year, Gerhard said again that a "very big American company" had spent over €1 million on a smear campaign targeting MindsEye.
MindsEye developers, on the other hand, pointed the failure finger squarely at studio leadership: Brutal crunch, gross mismanagement, and a lack of "coherent direction." Publisher IO Interactive also rejected the idea of external saboteurs damaging MindsEye, and later suggested that its experience with the game—the first to be published under its IOI Partners program—had left it uncertain about doing it again.
There's also no getting past the awkward fact that MindsEye is just not a good game. There's plenty of evidence to that effect, but I think my favorite has to be this "official gameplay teaser," which Build a Rock...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?