Build a Rocket Boy Is Shutting Down After MindsEye Failure

Build a Rocket Boy, the Scottish studio co-led by Leslie Benzies and Mark Gerhard, is on the verge of permanent closure. Multiple employees posted farewell messages on LinkedIn within a 24-hour window, and sources close to the situation have since confirmed the shutdown to both Kotaku and IGN, according to Gamekult.

Employees Signal the End on LinkedIn

Dan Hawkins, the studio’s lead recruiter, was among the first to go public, writing on LinkedIn that he was raising his “green flag” alongside colleagues and actively searching for new work while helping close out the HR department. Level designer Liam Shannon, QA analyst Elizabet Tyaneva, and release manager Michaela Emslie posted similar messages around the same time. One source told IGN that even if the entire workforce is let go, the legal entity behind Build a Rocket Boy may not be formally dissolved, leaving the company’s precise status somewhat uncertain.

A Collapse That Was a Long Time Coming

The studio’s troubles trace directly back to MindsEye, an action-adventure game released in June 2025 that landed to brutal reviews and weak sales. As Xboxygen notes, Benzies spent years helping shape the Grand Theft Auto series before founding Build a Rocket Boy, making the collapse of his new venture particularly notable. Following the launch, the studio carried out successive rounds of layoffs totaling more than 400 positions cut, according to Gamekult.

Rather than accept responsibility for the game’s poor reception, co-CEO Mark Gerhard publicly attributed part of the commercial failure to what he described as “organized espionage and corporate sabotage.” The studio even released a DLC titled Blacklisted, framed as a way to share evidence of that alleged sabotage with the community. The release did nothing to improve public opinion or the game’s performance. MindsEye ultimately ranked as the worst-reviewed game of 2025 on Metacritic.

Workers Speak Out, Union Steps In

Former employee Isaac Hudd issued a sharp public statement criticizing the studio’s leadership, saying that many people lower in the company had predicted the game would fail. He accused both executives of staying silent instead of supporting the staff who built the game after it flopped. The IWGB Games Workers Union, which had already launched a collective legal action against the studio’s management, responded to the closure news through vice-president Ben Newbon, expressing solidarity with those affected and describing Build a Rocket Boy as a company that had been in a “downward spiral for a long time.” The union said it remains committed to seeking justice for how workers were treated throughout the studio’s final period.

Sources: Gamekult, Xboxygen