Build A Rocket Boy staff accuse leadership of mistreatment following MindsEye collapse

More than 90 current and former employees at Build A Rocket Boy have signed an open letter accusing the company’s executive leadership of mistreating staff in the lead-up to and aftermath of the failed launch of MindsEye. The letter, released in coordination with the Game Workers Branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), alleges that between 250 and 300 people have been laid off due to the game’s commercial and critical collapse.

The signatories blame the studio’s leadership — specifically co-CEOs Leslie Benzies and Mark Gerhard — for ignoring staff input and mismanaging the project. “These layoffs happened because you repeatedly refused to listen to your workforce’s years of experience,” the letter reads, calling MindsEye “one of the worst video game launches this decade.”

Staff describe four months of mandatory crunch in the run-up to release, with eight hours of overtime each week compensated at a lower rate and often left unclaimed due to continued demands for high-priority tasks. Redundancy notices, they say, were mishandled, with some employees receiving incorrect notice periods or being assigned to the wrong teams for performance reviews, leading to what the letter describes as potentially dozens of wrongful dismissals.

The letter demands a public apology and financial compensation for laid-off employees, as well as improvements to internal processes. Employees still at risk of redundancy are asking for the choice between working their notice period or receiving payment in lieu. The letter also calls for Build A Rocket Boy to formally recognize IWGB as a union partner and to involve external firms in any future layoff processes.

IWGB representatives backed the letter’s claims. Chairperson Spring Mcparlin Jones described the past year at the studio as “shocking,” while PR officer Scott Alsworth accused studio leadership of scapegoating workers for executive-level failures. Former employees Isaac Hudd and Ben Newbon cited months of crunch and mental health breakdowns, claiming senior management ignored warnings and later blamed outside “saboteurs” for the game’s poor reception.

Newbon’s comments refer to Gerhard’s pre-launch remarks alleging that a “concerted effort” by hostile actors was responsible for the backlash. Publisher IO Interactive later distanced itself from those claims and the project as a whole.

MindsEye, originally conceived as a single-player companion to Build A Rocket Boy’s metaverse platform Everywhere, launched as a standalone title earlier this year to overwhelmingly negative reviews. Expectations for the game were largely driven by the pedigree of the studio’s founder Leslie Benzies. He was a key figure behind the Grand Theft Auto series during his time at Rockstar North, but left the company in 2016 following a highly publicized legal dispute over royalties. He went on to establish Build A Rocket Boy, an ambitious new studio aimed at reimagining how players engage with interactive worlds. MindsEye, the studio’s first major release, was meant to embody that vision as part of a broader platform called Everywhere, but ultimately failed to do so.

Aside from being poorly written and designed, MindsEye was plagued with bugs and performance issues, and two executives reportedly left the studio just a week before release. While the studio has since promised performance improvements and a soft relaunch, it has also warned that any future updates may be significantly delayed. The game was received so poorly that lead actor Alex Hernandez (his previous projects include providing looks and voice for Mafia 3 protagonist), who played the main character in MindsEye, said the project was so damaging to his career that he now fears he may never work in video games again.

Build A Rocket Boy has not yet publicly responded to the open letter.