The tough times faced by Build A Rocket Boy (BARB) are far from over, as the studio has carried out another round of layoffs, the third since MindsEye’s launch.
The latest layoff round is believed to have affected 170 employees, according to a Kotaku report. The latest round of layoffs is coming days after the release of the Blacklisted DLC, an in-game mission that was supposed to expose who sabotaged MindsEye’s launch.
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However, some of those who have played the Blacklisted mission were left underwhelmed by the around 20-minute story that proved nothing. MindsEye was one of the worst-rated games of 2025. It earned a Metascore of 44 on Xbox Series X, 39 on PC, and 29 on PS5.
Build A Rocket Boy co-CEOs, Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies, have maintained a hard-to-prove stance that MindsEye’s launch was sabotaged through a targeted million-dollar smear campaign by an influencer management agency. However, the reason for the poor reviews was that the game was almost unplayable at launch, requiring several patches to get it to a more satisfactory experience.
Before the new round of layoffs, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based company had around 250 employees, going by their LinkedIn profile. The latest round of layoffs means there are fewer than 100 employees left in the studio.
Ex-MindsEye employees share their experiences
Several employees who were impacted in the latest round of layoffs at Build A Rocket Boy have shared their experiences working at the studio.
Digital marketing Manager, George Jons-Clothier wrote, “After an incredible journey, yesterday marked my last day at Build A Rocket Boy. It has been an absolute privilege to be part of the passionate teams behind MindsEye and ASCENDANT.” The rest of the post was filled with appreciation for some of his ex-team members.
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QA analyst William Gower also posted about being impacted by the latest round of layoffs. “Unfortunately, as some of you may know, me and many of my colleagues at Build A Rocket Boy 🚀 have been let go after the latest round of redundancies”.
“As my first professional games industry job it has truly been an eye-opening experience. For those of whom I got the chance to work with it has truly been a pleasure, especially the QA team as we managed to make the best out of an unfortunate situation.”
Around a week earlier, 3D specialist Gary Lain Gough and level and narrative designer Leah Philpot posted about being laid off.
It was rumored that MindsEye cost an upward of $290 million to make. However, some reports suggest that the game generated less than $2 million, forcing the studio to struggle for survival.
At this point, do you think Build A Rocket Boy is facing potential closure? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
