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Around 170 staff have reportedly been laid off Build a Rocket Boy, the developer behind the unendingly troubled MindsEye. According to Kotaku, the exact number of people affected is unclear, but the latest round off staff cuts brings the Scotland-based studio’s headcount down to approximately 80.
There’s been no official announcement regarding the layoffs from BARB at the time of writing (Engadget has reached out to the studio for comment and we’ll update this post if and when we receive one), but as Kotaku points out, some former staff members have confirmed their departures in recent posts on LinkedIn. They include Technical Level Designer James Tyler and Audio Designer Tom Cross, among others.
BARB has gone through several rounds of layoffs in the last year following its debut game MindsEye‘s disastrous launch, with the previous wave of cuts announced in early March. Shortly after that, the studio parted ways with partner IO Interactive and now publishes MindsEye exclusively. A planned crossover with IO’s Hitman series was also canceled.
BARB has consistently argued that, while MindsEye‘s buggy state at launch naturally contributed to all the bad press, the game and studio as a whole was also the victim of both internal and external “sabotage.” In a bizarre move, the studio even promised to share more information on the alleged conspiracy within playable DLC for the game that was released earlier this month.
