Union members announce legal action against Build A Rocket Boy over layoffs

An open letter attributed to “93 employees and ex-employees” of Build A Rocket Boy has accused the studio’s leadership of “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment of your staff.” The open letter is accompanied by news that members of the Game Workers branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union have commenced legal action over mishandling of redundancies at the company.

The open letter – which is addressed to Build A Rocket Boy’s executive leadership and can be found on the IWGB website – lists a number of issues at the firm, including “lack of transparency and communication,” “unbearable levels of overtime,” and “disastrous handling of redundancies.”

A press release accompanying the letter said that members of the Game Workers branch of the IWGB union are “filing multiple legal actions against BARB, claiming failure to carry out fair consultation ahead of redundancies as well as multiple cases of unfair dismissal.”

An IWGB union representative said they were unable to provide specific details of the legal action at the current time. GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Build A Rocket Boy for comment on the accusations.

Build A Rocket Boy – which launched MindsEye on June 10 to a critical mauling, leaving it with a Metacritic score of just 37 on PC – confirmed in late June that it was making layoffs. A later report alleged that around 300 employees had received “at risk of redundancy” notices.

The letter to Build A Rocket Boy’s leadership says the layoffs happened “because you repeatedly refused to listen to your workforce’s years of experience, resulting in one of the worst video game launches this decade.”

The open letter goes on to accuse the studio’s leaders of implementing a “mandatory eight hours of overtime per week for every single employee” in the four months leading up to the release of MindsEye. It notes that time off in lieu was given at a rate of seven hours back for every eight hours worked, but adds that: “many have still not been able to take this time off due to your continued requests for extra ‘high-priority’ work, even after launch.”

It also accuses Build A Rocket Boy’s leadership of mishandling the redundancy process, saying: “Employees have received misinformation, been handed dismissal notices with the wrong notice periods, and been put in the wrong teams so that their performances were scored by the wrong people. These and other errors have potentially resulted in the wrongful dismissal of dozens of staff members.”

The letter concludes: “Our experience at the company has been one of burnout, job insecurity, health issues, and the failure of a game that many of us have put years of our lives into. BARB needs to change. CEOs need to take a backseat and allow the skilled people who remain at the company to forge the path ahead.”

The demands made by the letter include a public apology from the studio’s leadership; the option for the remaining employees on redundancy notice to either work their notice period or take payment in lieu of notice; a concerted effort to improve conditions at the company and recognise the IWGB union; and a commitment to use official external partners to action any future redundancies.

IWGB union representative Scott Alsworth said that the 93 signees of the letter chose to be anonymous for fear of repercussions from Build A Rocket Boy, as well as worries about anti-union discrimination when seeking other opportunities in the games sector. However, two former staff members were named in a press release accompanying the open letter.

Audio engineer Isaac Hudd said: “In my experience, Build A Rocket Boy has shown little regard for the wellbeing of its staff. Many fantastic, hard-working developers have felt used and discarded, while public statements of care have not matched the reality of working conditions.

“A pattern of poor decisions from senior management has led to a disappointing launch and ongoing challenges for both players and employees. Having supported many of my colleagues through the recent redundancy process, I have seen how damaging these practices can be. I will continue to speak out until this industry treats its people with the respect they deserve.”

“Studio leadership have chosen not to take responsibility for the game’s failure”

Ben Newbon

Another former Build A Rocket Boy employee, Ben Newbon, said: “The callousness shown by management towards staff at Build A Rocket Boy is truly awful. Even before the disastrous launch of MindsEye, staff had suffered months of crunch, resulting in some horrific mental and even physical illnesses, beyond the typical widespread burnout.

“Studio leadership have chosen not to take responsibility for the game’s failure and instead blamed saboteurs, as if individual employees or online influencers could have caused this. The arrogance of leadership to believe they can act with impunity throughout development and the following redundancies has pushed myself and many former and continuing employees to take a stand.”

Spring McparlinJones, chair of the IWGB Game Workers union (which also represents the newly formed union at ZA/UM), provided the following statement: “The treatment that workers at Build A Rocket Boy have been facing in the past twelve months has been shocking. They have been routinely belittled, cheated, and manipulated by the company they dedicated years of their lives to. Despite this, they were able to keep trust in each other and work together to fight for fair treatment.

“It’s scary to think that 10 years ago, other executives like Leslie Benzies and Mark Gerhard could treat their workers like this and face zero repercussions. I’m proud to say that that’s not the case anymore. Through the union, these workers have been able to force the executives at BARB to respect their rights. Let this serve as a notice to other executives like Mark and Leslie: the games industry is not the Wild West anymore. You don’t get to pretend that employment laws don’t apply to your company because if you do, then the union will be there to stop you.”

Build A Rocket Boy was founded in 2018 by Leslie Benzies, former studio head at Rockstar North, who worked on the studio’s biggest releases before leaving in 2016 following the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5. MindsEye was Build A Rocket Boy’s debut game, and was planned to be the first entry in an expanding universe. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz back in May, Benzies described it as sitting “bang in the middle of our story. So, we’re going to go back 10,000 years, then we’re going to go forward a certain amount of time. It’s the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is.”

The studio had planned a series of post-launch updates, including the addition of multiplayer and the reappearance of previously announced UGC platform Everywhere, but so far has only shipped a series of performance-focused patches and some additional missions.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz in August, McparlinJones criticised working conditions in the games sector. “You can ask anyone in the industry, and they will agree that the industry as it is structured at the moment is not sustainable,” McParlinJones said.

“With the waves of layoffs, the way that people are overworked, everyone agrees that there is a systemic problem. And no one seems to have a solution.”