Nearly 170 employees have reportedly been fired from Build a Rocket Boy, the developer’s increasingly troubled developer mindseye. according to KotakuThe exact number of people affected is unclear, but the latest staff cuts bring the number of employees at the Scotland-based studio to around 80.
There has been no official announcement from BARB regarding layoffs at the time of writing (Engadget has contacted the studio for comment and we’ll update this post when we receive one), but as Kotaku Tellingly, some former staff members have confirmed their departures in recent posts on LinkedIn. These 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 after its first game mindseyeThe disastrous launch of, with the announcement of the previous wave of cuts in early March. Shortly thereafter, the studio parted ways with partner IO Interactive and now publishes mindseye especially. A planned crossover with IO’s Hitman series was also cancelled.
BARB has consistently argued that, while mindseyeIts poor state at launch naturally contributed to all the bad press, with the game and the studio also being victims of both internal and external “sabotage”. In a bizarre move, the studio also promised to share more information on the alleged plot within a playable DLC for the game released earlier this month.
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