The IWGB union have held a protest with former Construct a Rocket Boy (BARB) workers exterior of the MindsEye studio’s places of work. The union accused the corporate of internet hosting an expenses-paid fan playtest occasion following layoffs, with IWGB chair Spring McParlin-Jones dubbing it “a kick within the enamel for the fired employees who’re seeing followers introduced in to do jobs that will in any other case have been theirs”.
As highlighted by Folks Make Video games’ Chris Bratt, the IWGB held the protest exterior of Construct a Rocket Boy’s places of work in Scotland on Saturday, July eleventh.
“This extravagant playtest occasion is a waste of cash, and a kick within the enamel for the fired employees who’re seeing followers introduced in to do jobs that will in any other case have been theirs,” McParlin-Jones mentioned in an announcement to Bratt. The crux of the difficulty is that, in line with the union, the playtest attendees had journey coated by BARB.
Sport employees protested exterior the Construct A Rocket Boy places of work on Saturday, because the studio hosted a playtesting occasion for followers.
BARB has laid off 250-300 workers over the past 13 months & has been accused of putting in surveillance software program on employees’ PCs to root out “saboteurs” inside the firm
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— Chris Bratt (@chrisbratt.bsky.social) 13 July 2026 at 12:30
“They sat by and allowed a whole department of their firm in France to go bankrupt, hoping the federal government there would clear up their mess,” ex-BARB worker Isaac Hudd mentioned of the corporate’s co-ceos Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies throughout a speech given on the protest. “They’ve now eliminated one other half of the corporate, and as an alternative of redundant group managers, they employed a fan from their Discord.
“And now they’ve flown in additional of them, on BARB’s ever-dwindling dime, to playtest a web based recreation that might be performed from wherever. It will be a pleasant gesture in most corporations, however after the lies, the worry, the stress and ignoring damned close to each try to make issues proper from their ex-employees, it’s nothing greater than a kick within the enamel to these they’ve deserted.”
I’ve reached out to Construct a Rocket Boy for remark.
Since MindsEye’s launch final June, the story at Construct a Rocket Boy has been a whirlwind that is virtually beggared perception at instances. Alongside the all too actual layoffs, there exec Gerhard has been alleging the sport was sabotaged, even claiming to have labored proof of that truth into the Hitman-esque mission added to the sport earlier this yr, Blacklisted. In the meantime, the IWGB have accused BARB administration of breaking the legislation by way of the set up of surveillance software program onto workers PCs as a part of an effort to catch alleged saboteurs.
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