The studio behind 2025’s worst-rated game, Build a Rocket Boy, has begun laying off staff members following the game’s controversial launch. MindsEye launched earlier in June and, without any reviews, a questionable marketing campaign, or lack thereof, gamers made the wise decision to skip spending R1,000 on this GTA-like game.
While sales figures aren’t available for MindsEye, the game has likely sold quite poorly due to the ongoing controversy surrounding it. User reviews for MindsEye are sitting at 37% on Steam with 1,840 reviews at the time of writing.
Even the Reddit community, which is usually a place for fans to enjoy something without the noise of the internet getting in the way, is littered with harsh criticism and blatant negative feedback. MindsEye is so bad that even Sony began refunding players on the PlayStation Store.
The lack of compelling gameplay and the generally mediocre experience in MindsEye have resulted in all of this. Now, the studio itself is reportedly going through the wringer. According to IGN, the Edinburgh-based game studio has begun consultation with staff regarding layoffs.
According to UK law, if a company is letting go of 20 workers, no consultation is required. However, if the mass layoffs cover between 20 and 99 workers, the company has to start a 30-day consultation period before dismissals can be served. A 45-day consultation is then required for over 100 staff members. So Build a Rocket Boy is clearly laying off more than 20 staff members if this report is correct.
The studio is estimated to have 300 UK-based staff members under its helm with an additional 200 staff in other parts of the world. The studio has since confirmed the layoffs saying:
We can confirm that we have had to make the painful decision to notify our hardworking team of some internal changes at Build A Rocket Boy. While we are working to reassign roles for as many of those impacted by these changes as possible, sadly we are initiating a formal consultation process that may result in redundancies. This decision has not been made lightly, and we are committed to handling this process with transparency, fairness, and respect for all employees. We will provide further details to the team over the coming weeks. The launch of MindsEye has been a significant milestone for Build A Rocket Boy, but we know that we still have a lot more to do to grow our community in the coming years. The challenges we’ve faced have only strengthened our resolve and, while we are deeply saddened by today’s decision and thankful to our incredible team, this shift allows us to focus on delivering ongoing updates and performance optimization for MindsEye, while also ensuring the long-term success of Build A Rocket Boy’s future ambitions.
Build a Rocket Boy did release a statement last week regarding the game, claiming the studio was “heartbroken” by the reception from players and was cracking down on patches and updates to fix the various bugs and issues in the game.
Source: IGN
