MindsEye studio confirm more layoffs, as CEO claims they've got "overwhelming evidence of organised espionage and corporate sabotage"

Build a Rocket Boy haven't specified how many people were affected by this latest round of cuts

MindsEye developers Build a Rocket Boy have announced that they're making more redundancies, with CEO Mark Gerhard using the statement to continue insisting that proof the game was targeted by "organised espionage and corporate sabotage" will be forthcoming.

In a lengthy statement posted to LinkedIn, Gerhard wrote that "the prolonged impact of the difficult launch means that we still had to take the brutal and heartbreaking step of reducing the size of the studio once again to ensure the long-term future of the company and the projects we continue to build." He added that Build a Rocket Boy will be "sharing details of affected team members with communities that actively support developers during transitions, to help connect people with new opportunities".

That bit of the statement came after a couple of paragraphs in which Gerhard first wrote of the need for leaders to "take responsibility for the outcomes of our projects and the decisions that follow", then immediately plunged into chat about alleged sabotage - a drum both he and BARB founder Leslie Benzies have banged at various points since release.

Image credit: Build A Rocket Boy

"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," Gerhard wrote. "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."

Summon the Lionel Hutzes, it would seem. Whether Gerhard and co do end up being able to pull out proof that MindsEye's launch was somehow ruined by an outside campaign's efforts remains to be seen, but all of the evidence thus far has pointed towards the game's faliure being down to the studio's management. Gerhard and Benzies have been accused by former staff of meddling micromanagement, enforing crunch, and even "disastrously" mishandling the redundancies which affected around 300 staff at Build a Rocket Boy last year.

More recently, BARB management were also reported to have installed monitoring software onto the PCs of their staff without informing the workers beforehand, in an effort to sniff out evidence of the spying and/or sabotage they believe has doomed the game.

Solidarity to those affected by these latest redundancies at Build a Rocket Boy.