Despite the waning interest in MindsEye after its troubled launch last year, the team at Build A Rocket Boy has been diligently working to address the game’s issues over the past few months. Their focus has been on enhancing the successful aspects while also rectifying the shortcomings.

The troubles began last summer when the game received negative reviews for its buggy performance at release. This backlash resulted in layoffs at BARB shortly after staff received concerning emails regarding the company’s stability. Recently, according to various reports, the studio has faced additional staffing cuts following the lackluster reception of its seventh major update, which was intended to refresh the brand and improve player experience. While the update did elevate the game’s reviews on Steam to ‘mostly positive’ and attracted some new players, it wasn’t sufficient to reverse the overall trend.

This situation is not unique to BARB, as many studios encounter challenges following significant failures. However, co-CEO Mark Gerhard’s recent statements bring attention back to the difficulties faced by the company. In a communication shared via BARB’s LinkedIn, Gerhard reiterated claims of “organized espionage and corporate sabotage” affecting the development of MindsEye, suggesting that the matter could potentially lead to legal action, which limits the details that can be disclosed at this time.

On February 9th, it was reported that workers at BARB discovered monitoring software called Teramind had been installed on their computers. This development reportedly hindered the performance of critical game development tools. According to insider sources, Gerhard reassured employees during a meeting that the monitoring software was expected to be removed within three months.

As for BARB’s future actions—be they legal or related to the ongoing development of MindsEye—the path forward remains unclear. The game’s SteamDB page currently indicates a peak of 39 players in the last 24 hours, with only 19 players active at this moment. The all-time record was set nine months ago with 3,302 concurrent players. While data on console performance is sparse, the prevailing sentiment suggests that the situation remains troubling.