MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy (BARB), the studio established by former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies, has announced its second round of job cuts in eight months.

In a statement posted on LinkedIn by BARB chief exec Mark Gerhard, the UK studio confirmed it has laid off an undisclosed number of employees.

Notably, it also suggested the rocky launch of MindsEye, which was critically panned and preceded by a number of key executive departures at BARB, was the result of "organized espionage and corporate sabotage."

"As leaders we take responsibility for the outcomes of our projects and the decisions act follow. At the same time the launch period was affected by factors beyond normal operational challenges and a competitive environment," wrote Gerhard.

"Over the past months we have been working with external partners and legal advisors to investigate the criminal activity that took place around our launch. That work has taken far longer than expected, but it has now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving towards prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet."

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Gerhard said the development team has "worked relentlessly" to support MindsEye while the investigation progressed but claimed the prolonged impact of a difficult launch has resulted in the need for more layoffs.

BARB initially made a number of employees redundant in June 2025. Although it didn't confirm how many roles were being eliminated, IGN indicated the process could result in over 100 layoffs.

Months later, around 100 current and former BARB employees signed an open letter containing allegations of "disastrous" mismanagement. Those signatories claimed studio leadership pushed employees to work "unbearable levels of overtime" while completely mishandling the layoff process.

In February this year, BARB was accused of installing surveillance technology on work machines without the knowledge of employees.

Game Developer has reached out to BARB for comment.