Updated 20 September 2026, 12:48
Build A Rocket Boy, the studio behind the troubled action adventure MindsEye, is going through another round of job cuts. Several developers have said publicly that they’ve been let go, and according to sources familiar with the situation this latest wave effectively marks the end of the studio. A number of employees have already announced their departures on LinkedIn, and one staffer, Dan Hawkins, said he intends to stay on until operations are fully wrapped up.
The studio hasn’t clarified how many people are affected. One source close to the company says Build A Rocket Boy may not be formally dissolved even if every employee is released – which leaves plenty of open questions about what happens to the company and to MindsEye itself.
How MindsEye Ended Up Here
MindsEye started life as part of Everywhere, the creation platform pitched as a “Roblox for adults” and headed by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies. The studio later pivoted to make MindsEye its flagship product, and headcount swelled past 500 people at its peak.
The June 2025 launch went badly. Players called the game “broken,” “buggy,” and “the worst game of 2025,” and its technical problems quickly turned it into an internet punchline. On Metacritic it sits at 29%, making it the worst-reviewed game of 2025. Build A Rocket Boy said it was “heartbroken” about the problems players ran into and promised a run of patches targeting performance, glitches, and broken AI behavior.
Benzies told staff the studio would recover and relaunch the game, blaming its troubles partly on internal and external “saboteurs.” CEO Mark Gerhard said the company had been looking into what he described as “criminal activity” around the launch.
The Relaunch That Didn’t Land
The attempted comeback arrived as the Blacklisted update, but it didn’t change the game’s trajectory. Beyond a handful of fixes, the post-launch support amounted to a multiplayer add-on with a soccer mode. Later updates and even a 50% off Steam sale failed to bring players back – MindsEye recorded a 24-hour peak of just 16 concurrent players on Steam, a number that makes any meaningful live-service future almost impossible to picture. Console figures aren’t publicly available.
The game is currently available at half its original price on PC, PS5, and Xbox.
Layoffs That Have Been Rolling for Over a Year
The cuts didn’t start now. In July of last year, at-risk-of-redundancy emails went out to the Scottish studio’s roughly 300-strong UK workforce, and further rounds followed. This summer, fired staff protested outside the studio over an “all-expenses-paid playtest day.” The company has also previously faced accusations of excessive overtime and inappropriate monitoring of employees.
The Money Behind the Studio
Benzies was a central figure on the Grand Theft Auto team at Rockstar and is widely seen as one of the architects of the series’ success. He left in 2016 during a legal dispute over unpaid royalties that was eventually settled out of court. That pedigree helped Build A Rocket Boy pull in more than £233 million ($313 million) in investment by 2024, and Hitman developer IO Interactive picked up publishing rights.
The studio’s latest financial statements, made up to September 30, 2025, show revenue of £4.6 million ($6.1 million) against total operating costs of £52.1 million ($70 million) – a declared net loss of £36.2 million ($48.6 million) for the period.
In May, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick made comments at the TD Cowen 54th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that read like a nod to the situation. “Making hits seems to get harder and harder and harder as entertainment industries mature,” he said. “The folks at Rockstar seem to be able to make these massive hits, and lots of other people have tried. Lots and lots, including former Rockstar employees. And so far, they haven’t been able to do it.”
What It Means for You
If you own MindsEye, there’s currently no guarantee of further patches or content, because nobody has confirmed how many developers are left to work on it. Build A Rocket Boy has been asked for comment and hasn’t clarified the size of the layoffs. With the servers and the studio’s future both unclear, treat the game as it is today rather than as something that will get fixed later – and keep that in mind if you’re tempted by the half-price tag.
FAQ
The exact number hasn’t been confirmed. Multiple developers have said publicly that they were let go and several announced their departures on LinkedIn, but the studio hasn’t clarified the extent of the cuts.
Sources familiar with the studio say this latest wave of layoffs means it’s winding down for good, and one employee said he’s staying until operations are fully closed. Officially, however, the company may not be formally dissolved even if all staff are released.
MindsEye posted a 24-hour peak of 16 concurrent players on Steam. Console player numbers aren’t publicly available.
The Blacklisted update was the studio’s attempt at a relaunch, but it failed to move the needle. A handful of later fixes, a multiplayer add-on with a soccer mode, and a 50% off Steam sale didn’t bring players back either.
Build A Rocket Boy attracted more than £233 million ($313 million) in investment by 2024. Its statements made up to September 30, 2025 show £4.6 million in revenue, £52.1 million in operating costs, and a net loss of £36.2 million.