Last week, we wrote about how MindsEye‘s studio, Build a Rocket Boy, seemed to have fired everyone at the company, with only a few people remaining to see it through to closure. Now, those reports have materialized, as the company has officially filed for administration.
As spotted by Eurogamer, BARB has officially filed for administration at the United Kingdom Companies House, which indicates the company is insolvent and lacks the money to pay off debts to various people and organizations. Administration is usually filed as a means to protect the company from legal proceedings regarding these debts and is used by companies that are having problems accumulating enough cash to solve their financial woes.
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Gamesindustry.biz managed to confirm that Opus Advisory Group was selected to be BARB’s administrator during these proceedings. The UK Companies House does say that a “viable business” can be “rescued” from insolvency through administration, though based on reports from last week I’d say this is the end of the road for Leslie Benzies’ independent endeavors.
BARB could still be sold and thus find a way to secure new funding and cash at the expense of its business liberty, but at this point third-party management may just be what the company needs to stay afloat. Whether it’ll secure this extra cash is rather uncertain, though.
BARB released MindsEye last year, dubbed by many leading up to release as the “GTA killer,” which only wound up killing itself. The game was a classic dumpster fire, with nothing going right for it. The gameplay was mediocre, the tech side of things was a total disaster, and nothing about MindsEye really stood out to anyone anywhere in the world. Instead of focusing on fixing things, BARB’s leader, Leslie Benzies, former president of GTA creator Rockstar North, accused internal and external saboteurs of destroying the studio and the game.
A re-release followed some months later, but that, too, just wasn’t good.
