Build a Rocket Boy Reels From Third Wave of Layoffs, MindsEye Future Uncertain as Staff Numbers Dwindle

Edinburgh, Scotland – Build a Rocket Boy (BARB), the ambitious studio behind the upcoming title MindsEye (and Everywhere), is reportedly grappling with its third significant round of redundancies in the past year. Recent reports indicate that approximately 170 employees have been laid off, dramatically reducing the studio’s workforce to an estimated 80 staff members. This severe reduction in personnel raises profound questions about the future development of MindsEye and the long-term viability of the studio itself, which has faced a tumultuous period marked by project resets, executive departures, and controversial claims of corporate sabotage.

The latest wave of layoffs, impacting roles across technical level design, audio design, and quality assurance, as well as the studio’s social media team, underscores a deepening crisis within the Edinburgh-based developer. These job cuts follow previous substantial reductions and the reported closure of BARB’s Montpellier studio in France, painting a grim picture for a company that once harboured grand ambitions for its innovative projects. The video game industry, already reeling from a global wave of redundancies, watches closely as one of its high-profile independent ventures struggles to find stable ground.

The Latest Blow: A Studio on the Brink

The recent reports, initially brought to light by Kotaku, suggest a drastic overhaul of Build a Rocket Boy’s operational capacity. With around 170 individuals reportedly let go, the remaining staff count of approximately 80 represents a shadow of its former size. This figure marks a stark contrast to the studio’s previous peak, highlighting the profound impact of successive restructuring efforts. Employees across critical development functions, including technical level design, audio design, and quality assurance (QA), have been affected, indicating a broad culling of talent across various departments essential for game production. Furthermore, even the studio’s outward-facing communications team felt the brunt, with members of BARB’s social media staff confirming their departure on the developer’s Discord server.

This latest round of redundancies is not an isolated incident but rather the culmination of a year-long struggle to navigate a challenging industry landscape and internal project hurdles. For many within the gaming community and industry observers, the news confirms fears that the studio’s ambitious vision for MindsEye has been met with significant operational and financial headwinds. The immediate future of the game, which has already undergone a "reset" to address earlier negative feedback, now appears more precarious than ever, as a significantly smaller team is tasked with revitalising a title that has yet to capture its intended audience.

A Tumultuous Timeline: Build a Rocket Boy’s Year of Turmoil

The recent layoffs at Build a Rocket Boy are the latest chapter in a protracted period of instability that has plagued the studio over the past year. What began as whispers of restructuring has escalated into a series of drastic measures, fundamentally reshaping the company’s structure and jeopardizing its flagship projects.

July 2024 (Ambiguous Date): The Initial Major Restructuring
The first major public indication of significant internal issues emerged with reports of approximately 300 UK-based employees being "at risk of redundancy" in July. While the original article stated "July 2025," this appears to be a typographical error given the context of "shortly after the game’s launch." Assuming this refers to July 2024 or late 2023, this initial wave represented a massive reduction in workforce shortly after MindsEye‘s initial release or public testing phase. Build a Rocket Boy itself confirmed these layoffs, stating they occurred as the developer shifted focus towards "updates and performance optimization for MindsEye." This initial restructuring was positioned as a necessary step to streamline operations and dedicate resources to improving the game’s core experience, which had been met with a lukewarm reception due to technical issues.

March 2024: French Studio Closure and Second Wave of Layoffs
The turbulence continued into March of the current year, marking a particularly difficult period for the studio. Reports surfaced detailing the closure of BARB France, the Montpellier-based studio that had only opened its doors in 2022 with much fanfare. The closure of this European outpost, intended to bolster the studio’s development capabilities, signalled a retraction rather than expansion.
Concurrently, a second round of layoffs was initiated across the remaining UK operations. This round was particularly notable not just for its impact on staff but for the extraordinary explanation offered by BARB CEO Mark Gerhard. In an unprecedented move, Gerhard attributed these layoffs to "organised espionage and corporate sabotage" during the launch of MindsEye. He claimed that "some people had their hands on the scale and deliberately tried to shape a negative narrative around the product so it didn’t get a fair chance," preventing it from finding its community or being iterated on effectively. This controversial accusation painted a picture of internal strife and external machinations, a narrative rarely seen accompanying mass redundancies in the gaming industry.
Adding to the woes in March, Build a Rocket Boy also saw the end of its publishing agreement with IOI Partners. While the specifics of this termination were not fully disclosed, the dissolution of such a partnership often indicates strategic realignments or disagreements over project direction and performance.

April/May 2024: CEO Confirms More Layoffs Are Imminent
Following the events of March, CEO Mark Gerhard publicly acknowledged that the layoffs were "not over." This pre-emptive warning, issued last month in response to the termination of the IOI Partners publishing deal, signaled to the remaining staff and the wider industry that further reductions were a distinct possibility. This statement, rather than offering reassurance, solidified the atmosphere of uncertainty and foreshadowed the dramatic events that have now unfolded.

Recent Reports: The Third and Most Drastic Reduction
The latest reports, detailing the dismissal of approximately 170 employees and leaving only around 80 staff, represent the most severe culling to date. This third major wave of redundancies in less than a year has decimated the studio’s workforce, raising serious questions about its capacity to deliver on its promises for MindsEye and any other potential projects. The cumulative effect of these repeated layoffs has undoubtedly taken a severe toll on employee morale, institutional knowledge, and the overall stability of Build a Rocket Boy. The studio, once seen as a beacon of innovation backed by significant investment, now appears to be fighting for its very existence amidst a continuous cycle of contraction.

Supporting Data: A Broader Industry Crisis and MindsEye’s Challenges

The struggles at Build a Rocket Boy are not occurring in a vacuum but rather against the backdrop of an unprecedented period of instability and job losses across the global video game industry. 2023 and 2024 have been marked by a staggering number of redundancies, impacting thousands of developers worldwide, from indie studios to industry giants.

The Pervasive Industry Layoff Trend:
Analysts point to several converging factors contributing to this widespread crisis:

Post-Pandemic Correction: The gaming industry experienced a boom during the COVID-19 lockdowns, leading to significant over-hiring in anticipation of sustained growth. As pandemic restrictions eased and player engagement normalized, many companies found themselves overstaffed relative to current market realities.
Economic Downturn and Inflation: Global economic headwinds have led to reduced consumer spending on discretionary items like video games, impacting sales and revenue forecasts. Increased operating costs due to inflation have further squeezed profit margins.
Rising Development Costs: The cost of developing AAA games has skyrocketed, with budgets often running into hundreds of millions of dollars. This increases the financial risk associated with each new title, making studios more susceptible to financial pressures if a game underperforms.
Market Saturation and Competition: The market is increasingly saturated with new releases, making it harder for games, especially new IPs like MindsEye, to cut through the noise and establish a dedicated player base.
Consolidation and Restructuring: Mergers, acquisitions, and internal restructuring within large publishing houses often lead to duplicated roles and subsequent layoffs as companies seek efficiencies.

In this challenging environment, Build a Rocket Boy’s difficulties are symptomatic of broader industry trends, though the specifics of its situation, particularly the CEO’s claims, add a unique dimension to its narrative.

MindsEye’s Rocky Start:
A significant contributing factor to BARB’s woes appears to be the initial reception of MindsEye. While the article doesn’t detail its launch date or specifics, it explicitly states the game "received negative feedback at launch due to bugs and performance issues." For a new intellectual property, a troubled launch can be a death knell. First impressions are crucial, and a game plagued by technical problems often struggles to retain players, generate positive word-of-mouth, and build the community essential for long-term success in the live-service era.
The studio’s subsequent announcement of a "reset" and a "new phase of ongoing development" for MindsEye was an attempt to salvage the project. This strategy typically involves re-evaluating core mechanics, overhauling technical infrastructure, and re-engaging with the community through extensive updates and new marketing pushes. However, attempting such a monumental task with a drastically reduced workforce poses immense challenges. The quality and speed of future updates, critical for a successful "reset," will undoubtedly be impacted by the severe reduction in staff, particularly across key development roles.

Official Responses and Controversial Allegations

Build a Rocket Boy has been notably guarded in its official communications regarding the specific numbers of employees affected by these latest layoffs. GamesIndustry.biz has reportedly contacted the studio for confirmation, but an immediate detailed response on the exact figures remains pending. This lack of transparent communication, while common during periods of restructuring, contributes to an environment of speculation and uncertainty.

CEO Mark Gerhard’s Unprecedented Claims:
The most striking official responses have come from CEO Mark Gerhard, whose statements have introduced a highly unusual and controversial narrative into the unfolding crisis. Following the March layoffs, Gerhard directly attributed the studio’s difficulties to "organised espionage and corporate sabotage" during MindsEye‘s launch. He elaborated on this claim, stating: "Some people had their hands on the scale and deliberately tried to shape a negative narrative around the product so it didn’t get a fair chance. It didn’t get to find its community. It didn’t get a chance to be iterated on, as would be typical for these things."

This accusation is highly unusual in the context of studio layoffs. While internal politics and competitive pressures are inherent in any industry, a direct claim of "organised espionage" and "corporate sabotage" suggests deliberate, malicious actions intended to undermine the product’s success. Such allegations, if true, would point to severe internal or external threats to the company’s integrity. However, without concrete evidence or further details, these claims remain unsubstantiated in the public domain and have likely been met with a mix of concern, skepticism, and perhaps confusion within the industry. It places the blame squarely on external or rogue internal actors, rather than purely on development challenges or market conditions.

Gerhard further contextualized the layoffs as "the brutal and heartbreaking step of reducing the size of the studio once again to ensure the long-term future of the company and the projects [it continues] to build." This framing positions the redundancies as a necessary, albeit painful, survival mechanism, rather than a failure of strategy or execution. His prior statement, just last month, that layoffs "were not over," solidified the perception of ongoing instability and a company bracing for further contraction.

The "Reset" Strategy:
In parallel with the restructuring, BARB announced a "reset" and a "new phase of ongoing development" for MindsEye. This strategy is an acknowledgment of the game’s initial shortcomings and a commitment to address them. A "reset" often involves significant retooling, re-prioritization of features, and a renewed focus on core gameplay loops and technical stability. For MindsEye, which reportedly suffered from bugs and performance issues, this approach aims to rebuild player trust and re-introduce the game to a potentially more receptive audience. However, the execution of such an ambitious "reset" with a skeleton crew of approximately 80 employees, after repeated rounds of layoffs, presents an almost insurmountable challenge. The capacity for rapid iteration, comprehensive bug fixing, and the creation of compelling new content will be severely constrained, raising doubts about the ultimate success of this revitalization effort.

Implications and Future Outlook

The dramatic reduction in workforce at Build a Rocket Boy carries significant implications for the studio, its projects, and the remaining employees, casting a long shadow over its future in the competitive video game industry.

Impact on MindsEye’s Development:
The most immediate and critical implication is the profound impact on MindsEye. With a development team reportedly shrinking from 170 to just 80 individuals after multiple rounds of layoffs, the capacity to execute the promised "reset" and "new phase of ongoing development" is severely compromised.

Slower Progress: Development will inevitably slow down. Essential tasks like bug fixing, content creation, and feature implementation will take longer, potentially delaying critical updates and alienating an already wary player base.
Reduced Scope: The ambition of MindsEye may need to be scaled back significantly. Features that were once planned could be cut, and the overall scope of the game’s world or content offerings might be reduced to what a smaller team can realistically manage.
Quality Concerns: A lean team, stretched across multiple disciplines, might struggle to maintain the high quality expected of a modern game. Pressure on remaining employees could lead to burnout and further impact the quality of work.
Lost Institutional Knowledge: Each round of layoffs results in the loss of valuable institutional knowledge, creative vision, and technical expertise, making it harder for the remaining team to pick up where others left off and maintain a consistent direction.

The question now is whether a team of 80 can realistically salvage and successfully relaunch a technically challenging and ambitious title like MindsEye, especially one that has already garnered negative initial feedback.

Impact on Build a Rocket Boy’s Viability and Reputation:
Beyond MindsEye, the repeated layoffs and controversies have broader implications for Build a Rocket Boy itself:

Reputational Damage: The constant news of redundancies and the CEO’s unusual claims of sabotage are likely to damage the studio’s reputation. This can make it incredibly difficult to attract top talent in the future, as developers will be wary of joining a company with such a volatile employment history.
Financial Stability: While layoffs are often a cost-cutting measure, successive rounds suggest deep financial distress. The long-term financial stability of BARB remains a major concern, particularly if MindsEye fails to generate substantial revenue after its "reset."
Investor Confidence: Investors, who initially backed the studio’s ambitious vision, may begin to lose confidence, making it harder to secure future funding for MindsEye or new projects.
Uncertainty for Remaining Staff: The atmosphere of continuous restructuring creates immense uncertainty and stress for the remaining 80 employees. This can impact morale, productivity, and lead to further attrition, creating a vicious cycle.

Broader Industry Lessons:
Build a Rocket Boy’s struggles serve as a poignant case study within the broader video game industry. It highlights the immense challenges faced by even well-funded independent studios attempting to launch new, ambitious IPs in a saturated and economically volatile market. The difficulty of overcoming a poor initial launch, the pressures of high development costs, and the human cost of widespread layoffs are all starkly demonstrated. The future of BARB and MindsEye remains highly uncertain. While the studio is attempting a "reset," the drastic reduction in its workforce, coupled with the cumulative impact of a year of turmoil, suggests an uphill battle. The coming months will be critical in determining whether Build a Rocket Boy can defy the odds and emerge from this period of profound instability with a viable project and a sustainable future.