MindsEye Developer Build A Rocket Boy Appears to Be Closing
Build A Rocket Boy, the developer behind the action-adventure game MindsEye, appears to be shutting down.
The signal came from staff, not from a formal company statement. Several employees wrote on LinkedIn that their time at the studio was "coming to an end". Kotaku reported that the studio is set to close for good, as relayed by Engadget.
Principal talent acquisition partner Dan Hawkins wrote that he would see BARB "through till the very end, helping wrap things up here in the HR department". His post implied that all employees were out of a job.
That follows a series of cuts. In June 2025, IGN reported, citing studio sources, that a layoff process had started after the launch of MindsEye. The studio confirmed that the redundancy process, the formal UK procedure for cutting jobs, had begun.
The cuts continued into this year. Build A Rocket Boy announced further layoffs as its CEO repeated claims of 'organised espionage and corporate sabotage', according to IGN. In July, Benzies told staff the studio would bounce back and relaunch MindsEye.
Further reductions followed. Kotaku reported, citing two sources, that up to 170 employees were affected, as relayed by PC Gamer. At the time, the studio had made no formal statement about those cuts. Separately, on May 6, 2026, GamesIndustry.biz reported that an undisclosed number of employees had reportedly been laid off.
Other developments around the business were also reported. CEO Mark Gerhard responded to the end of the company's publishing agreement with IOI Partners, the deal covering distribution and sales. Earlier, the studio had expanded its search for "saboteurs" and threatened YouTubers with legal action.
The broader context here is practical. A game that needs fixes, performance work and ongoing live support needs enough staff to do that work. Each round of cuts leaves fewer people to build, test and support a relaunch.
In my view, the order of events matters more than any single cut. An initial redundancy process, then further layoffs, then a publishing split, then fresh reports of cuts, rarely leaves a path back to full development. Knowledge about tools, build systems and production leaves with people, and it is slow to rebuild.
Looking at what this means for other teams, the lesson is procedural. A recovery plan needs stable staffing and a publishing setup that can survive bad weeks. Public talk of a comeback does not replace either. Worth flagging for studio leaders: when HR is described as wrapping things up, partners and staff read that as final.
Over the longer term, the tools for making games keep getting cheaper and more accessible. Engines, cloud-based build systems and online stores lower the cost of trying again. That does not ease the impact for the people affected here. If the LinkedIn posts are the final record, the ending is quiet. No staged farewell, just staff updates and a hiring lead staying to close files.
