Build A Rocket Boy, the studio behind the action-adventure game MindsEye, appears to be shutting down, according to employee statements and a report from Kotaku. Several staff members wrote on LinkedIn that their time at the company is ending, with principal talent acquisition partner Dan Hawkins saying he is open to work and looking for a new opportunity. Hawkins said he would remain until the very end to help wrap things up in the HR department, implying that the studio's employees are out of jobs.
MindsEye had a disastrous debut in June 2025, when the game arrived in a bug-riddled state. PlayStation was said to have issued refunds to some players who bought the game during that initial period. A round of layoffs followed soon after the release. Build A Rocket Boy founder Leslie Benzies, a former Grand Theft Auto producer, reportedly blamed the game's troubles on saboteurs inside and outside the company.
The studio released an expansion for MindsEye this spring. It included a mission that the company claimed would expose evidence of the purported conspiracy behind the game's failure. According to Rock Paper Shotgun, the mission contained no juicy details about the alleged scandal and amounted to a humdrum riff on a Hitman mission. The addition of multiplayer and a Rocket League-esque soccer mode this summer did not turn around MindsEye's fortunes either.
Build A Rocket Boy became the sole publisher of MindsEye in March after parting ways with IOI Partners, an arm of 007 First Light developer IO Interactive. Further rounds of layoffs took place that month and in May.
Earlier this year, dozens of employees accused the studio of spying on them. According to the IWGB Game Workers Union, Build A Rocket Boy management installed invasive Teramind surveillance software onto workers' devices without their knowledge. The union said the monitoring went beyond tracking productivity or safeguarding company security by recording individuals in their homes without their consent.
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