After numerous rounds of layoffs, MindsEye studio Build a Rocket Boy appears to be closing down for good.
MindsEye was released in June 2025, landing a 39 Metacritic score on PC and a 29 on PS5, making it the worst-rated game of last year.
Since then the studio has been embroiled in numerous controversies, from a number of layoffs totalling over 400 staff, to co-CEO Mark Gerhard suggesting that one of the main reasons behind MindsEye’s commercial failure was “criminal activity” including “organised espionage and corporate sabotage”.
The studio even released a DLC mission for the game called Blacklisted, which it said would “share some of the evidence of the sabotage with the community”, but its release seemingly didn’t have much impact on public opinion or the fate of the game.
Now it would appear that a further round of layoffs is taking place, but this time the actual company appears to be closing down too.
Members of the ResetEra forum spotted that Dan Hawkins – a principal talent acquisition partner and HR operations manager at Build a Rocket Boy – posted on LinkedIn that he would be staying with Build a Rocket Boy until “the very end”, but was also looking for work, implying that the company is closing soon.
“With a very heavy heart I raise my green banner, along with the rest of my colleagues at Build a Rocket Boy,” Hawkins wrote. “I am ‘Open to Work’ actively looking for a new adventure. After speaking with hundreds of people from our industry affected in this way over the past few years, I finally experience it myself.
“Just shy of 5 years here at BARB and one hell of a ride! Being the first hire into our internal recruitment team, taking the studio from 200 to 550 in a short period of time. It has been an honour to work alongside so many talented people, far too many to mention!
“This has been my favorite job of all time. It has been pure chaos at times, but I have learned and grown so much. I have been trusted to step up, take responsibility, make mistakes and at times learn the hard way.
“I will be seeing BARB through till the very end, helping wrap things up here in the HR department. But I would be very interested in hearing about any opportunities, both within and outside of the games industry to join growing companies.”
Sources give conflicting info on whether the company will be dissolved
Kotaku has also cited sources familiar with the situation, who have told the publication that the studio is indeed set to close its doors. However, another source told IGN that even if all staff are let go, the company itself may not be dissolved.
In July former employees protested outside the office of Build a Rocket Boy in Edinburgh, Scotland as the company held an “all-expenses-paid playtest event” which they claimed were seeing fans “take on testing duties usually carried out by professional staff”.
“We’re here today because all of us believe in one thing, that game workers deserve to be treated with respect,” former employee Isaac Hudd said at the protest. “The two CEOs in this building will likely say they agree, but their actions have shown otherwise.
“A little over a year ago, after the most brutal crunch, Build a Rocket Boy released MindsEye to the world. As many in the lower levels of the company predicted, it crashed and burned, resulting in Metacritic’s worst game of 2025.
“Instead of taking responsibility, instead of reassuring or commiserating with the people who made their game, the co-CEOs of this company went silent. On their eventual return, they announced layoffs. What followed was three months of lies, veiled threats and ultimately the callous removal of at least 250 employees. But they didn’t stop there.”
Hudd then criticised the studio’s conspiracy-fuelling DLC, its subsequent further redundancies, its decision to host the expenses-paid fan playtest and its decision to offer one fan a job instead of giving it to a recently laid off employee.
