Controversial MIndseye game studio Build A Rocket Boy is seemingly closing down following another round of redundancies.
Founded in 2017, Build A Rocket Boy was conceived by Grand Theft Auto alumni Leslie Benzies, Matthew Smith, and Colin Entwistle to create Everywhere, a massively multiplayer online game platform that focused on user-generated content.
In 2025, the studio released Mindseye, a single-player linear GTA-like adventure set in the near-future metropolis of Redrock. The title, originally part of the Everywhere project, also included its own user-generated content, and received negative reviews.
Speaking to FRVR after the game’s negative launch, lead star Alexander Hernandez said the game’s awful release left him wondering if he was the problem. “Do I have the opposite of the golden touch, the sh*t-brown touch?” he said on an episode of our podcast.
Since the game’s launch, Build A Rocket Boy has conducted multiple layoffs. Initial redundancies hit around 300 employees in July 2025, followed by further layoffs in March 2026 and more in May 2026. FRVR can report that additional layoffs have now taken place with some employees claiming that this is now “the very end” of the company.
“With a very heavy heart I raise my green banner, along with the rest of my colleagues at Build a Rocket Boy,” principal talent acquisition partner Dan Hawkins said on LinkedIn earlier today. “I am ‘Open to Work’ actively looking for a new adventure. I will be seeing BARB through till the very end, helping wrap things up here in the HR department.”
A number of other developers of the small remaining team on the Mindseye project have also announced their redundancies. “Unfortunately, along with the rest of my colleagues at Build a Rocket Boy, I am facing redundancy and now looking for a new opportunity,” said lead weapon and prop artist Adam Ridsdale.
Since release, Mindseye and its game studio has been embroiled in controversy. Alongside the state of the game on launch and severe layoffs, the studio’s leadership claimed that a large network was paid to sabotage the game. The game eventually released a Blacklisted DLC that claimed to expose the game’s saboteurs, which appeared to be nothing more than a PR stunt.
Build A Rocket Boy has yet to give any statement regarding the further redundancies. The last official update from the studio released on July 27th, announcing Update 8 for consoles and PC, which brought the game’s last game mode: Grenade Football.
For now, the Mindseye servers are still online, allowing players to not only engage with its multiplayer options, but also create and download user-generated content. It’s not known when the game’s servers will be switched off.
Mindseye is still available to purchase on PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5 consoles at the time of writing. We have reached out to Build A Rocket Boy for comment.
