MindsEye studio head claims "saboteurs" led to the game's poor launch, report reveals

Leslie Benzies, the founder and studio head of Edinburgh-based Build a Rocket Boy, has claimed that "internal and external saboteurs" were responsible for the disastrous launch of MindsEye earlier this year.

The details:

• According to a new report from the BBC, during an online staff meeting in July prior to the company’s round of layoffs, the former Grand Theft Auto producer said that he would “root out saboteurs" within the company. "I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this and continue to work here," Benzies reportedly told employees.
• Unsurprisingly, staff were taken aback by the boss’s strange conspiracy, as it was rather clear among employees why MindsEye ended up being a major flop upon its release. An anonymous former employee, referred to as Jamie, claimed that Benzies “never decided what game he wanted to make,” resulting in a lack of “coherent direction.”
• According to Jamie, former lead data analyst Ben Newbon, and associate producer Margherita "Marg" Peloso, Build a Rocket Boy was also impacted by Benzies’s decision to micro-manage the studio. When playing builds of MindsEye during development, the founder would reportedly take note of any bugs, creating what employees would dub "Leslie tickets,” that could range from small cosmetic issues to changing or scrapping entire missions. "It didn't matter what else you were doing, what else was being worked on," Newbon said, “the Leslie ticket had to be taken care of."
• The episode isn’t the first time Build a Rocket Boy’s leadership has attempted to deflect blame for the failure of MindsEye. Earlier this year, studio co-CEO Mark Gerhard took to Discord to claim that "all the people who reacted negatively were financed by someone" and that negative reviews of the game were part of a “concentrated effort” against the developer.
• Between 250 and 300 Build a Rocket Boy staff have been laid off following the game's failure, with the majority of the cuts targeting employees based in its Edinburgh studio. The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union's Game Workers Branch recently published an open letter signed by 93 current and former employees alleging "systemic mistreatment, mismanagement, and mishandling of the redundancy process" and announced plans to take legal action against the studio.