If you thought the video game industry was immune to plot twists, the story of MindsEye’s dramatic faceplant will make you think again. Here’s how the mastermind behind GTA, Leslie Benzies, went from jackpot investor darling to helming a £200m downfall—and how a passionate team went from high hopes to layoffs in world-record time.
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From Rockstar Pedigree to Barb’s High Hopes
Leslie Benzies isn’t just another big name in gaming. He’s the Leslie Benzies—a senior figure on Rockstar Games’ legendary Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series, widely celebrated as a key architect of its runaway success. So when his new studio, Barb, set up shop in a former casino in Leith, Edinburgh (all bets on red, apparently), expectations soared.
The team went global, with studios in Budapest and Montpellier, enticing investors and the public alike. According to UK company documents, Barb drummed up more than £233m of investment by 2024—a financial jackpot that should have spelled security, not disaster.
The Crunch: Promises, Problems, and Ominous Overtimes
But behind the scenes, things were far from rosy. Developers described a mountain of demands, some as simple as fixing minor cosmetic glitches, others as drastic as scrapping entire game missions—with the tacit understanding that these changes would shoot to the very top of the to-do list.
- Marg, one team member, shared that ‘crunch’ hours kicked off in mid-February, stretching through to May. The grueling overtime regime dangled a promise: seven hours of leave for every eight hours of overtime, to be redeemed (someday) after MindsEye’s release. Just the thing every developer loves: IOUs for future sleep.
- Former audio programmer Isaac Hudd said mistakes piled up during crunch, and regressions became frequent—one team patching a bug only for another to resurrect it innocently, like a haunted line of code refusing to rest in peace.
Launch Day Blues: Bugs, Glitches, and a Melting Face
When MindsEye finally hit the digital shelves, it landed with the grace of a lead balloon. Players eager enough to buy on day one reported nasty performance issues and a swarm of bugs. The lowlights:
- Pedestrians doing their best invisible stair-climber impressions by walking on air
- One character’s face suffering such a graphical glitch that it appeared to melt—instantly achieving meme status, albeit for all the wrong reasons
The team hustled for two more weeks, pumping out “hotfixes” to zap the worst problems. But just as everyone was running out of coffee and hope, management warned them layoffs were pending.
The Fallout: Redundancies, Backlash, and Uncertain Futures
This month, chaos hit home. Somewhere between 250 and 300 Barb staff lost their jobs—most from the Edinburgh office, as the Game Workers Branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) attested. Of the 93 employees behind an open union letter, many felt the redundancy process was “disastrously mishandled.” Legal action is on the horizon as the union fights back.
Ben, a union member, took voluntary redundancy. But Marg and Isaac, who were laid off, voiced serious discontent over how exits were managed (yes, there’s a right and wrong way to fire hundreds of people).
Barb, for its part, issued a statement full of regret and recognition. They praised the staff’s “passion, creativity, and hard work,” and stressed that redundancies were not anticipated after launch. Addressing accusations about poor leadership, shaky workplace culture, and covert forces “working against the studio,” Barb said Leslie Benzies and the entire leadership took full responsibility for MindsEye’s ill-fated debut.
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In a notable (and slightly chilling) video address, Benzies tried to rally the staff, promising a plan and denouncing the “negativity” as “uncalled for.” He’s quoted as saying, “I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this and continue to work here,” a statement that, if nothing else, confirms tensions inside were as high as those outside.
Looking ahead, the mood among ex-Barb employees is bleak. Not only for themselves, but for peers across an industry reeling from tens of thousands of job losses over just three years. It’s hardly the ending they’d imagined when MindsEye set out to be the next big thing.
In the end, MindsEye didn’t just crash; it left a crater. For all the talent and vision, the true cost lay in burnout, bungled launches, and battered hopes. A cautionary tale, indeed—and perhaps a reminder that even the architect of GTA can find himself at the mercy of a game gone wrong.
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Jordan Park writes in-depth reviews and editorial opinion pieces for Touch Reviews. With a background in UI/UX design, Jordan offers a unique perspective on device usability and user experience across smartphones, tablets, and mobile software.