The reveal of this latest round of layoffs came courtesy of many now-former employees of Build A Rocket Boy, including technical lead designer James Tyler, audio designer Tom Cross, QA analyst Gary Iain Gough, and level designer Leah Philpot.

“Unfortunately due to the recent redundancies at Build A Rocket Boy, I’m now looking for new opportunities within Sound Design and Audio,” wrote Cross on LinkedIn. In a similar post, Tyler wrote, “Due to the latest redundancies at BARB unfortunately my role is ending at the end of May.”

Many members of the studio’s social media team have also confirmed the layoffs through Discord posts, including digital marketing manager George Jons-Clothier.

“Just popping in to share that tomorrow (May 5th) will be my last working day with BARB,” he wrote. “It has been an absolute pleasure and a genuine honor to be part of this community. You folks are some of the kindest, most welcoming, talented, and passionate people I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing and have made every day working on MindsEye feel meaningful and fun.”

These layoffs follow another round from back in March, which studio CEO Mark Gerhard blamed on “factors beyond normal operational challenges and a competitive environment.” He also said that he had been working with external partners and legal advisors, resulting in “overwhelming evidence of organised espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving toward prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet.”

As one would expect, this conspiracy theory-laden post by Gerhard drew plenty of criticism, including from Riot Games’ Nic McConnell, who said that the CEO should not have combined announcing layoffs with these theories. “These are people, this is their livelihood and your post is disrespectful to their contributions,” he wrote.

It is also worth noting that, just last month, a number of employees part of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) filed a lawsuit against Build A Rocket Boy, alleging that the studio’s leadership had been spying on employees through the use of monitoring software Teramind. The software was only removed after 40 employees had signed a collective grievance about its use, according to IWGB representatives.

Many of the studio’s former employees have also spoken out against its practices, including industry veteran and MindsEye lead animator Chris Wilson. “Sometimes traumatic experiences can bring people closer, right?” he said. “But people… they’re embarrassed about it. People don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to say that they were part of the project or worked there.”

Former lead games analyst Ben Newborn also spoke out against Build A Rocket Boy, noting that the company had already made crunch periods part of its development culture.

“Sometimes traumatic experiences can bring people closer, right?” said Wilson. “But people… they’re embarrassed about it. People don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to say that they were part of the project or worked there.”

Wilson’s comments were joined by those of former lead games analyst Ben Newborn, who revealed that the staff at Build A Rocket Boy had already been suffering from a culture of crunch before the release of MindsEye. This, he noted, led to “horrific mental and even physical illness.”

“Even before the disastrous launch of MindsEye, staff had suffered months of crunch, resulting in some horrific mental and even physical illnesses, beyond the typical widespread burnout,” he said.

Wilson also discussed how Build A Rocket Boy handled crunch, noting that it went on for quite a bit of time. The cinematics team, for instance, had been in crunch from June “until a good few months later” without being appropriately paid for the work.

“It was hard for a lot of people. It did go on for a considerable amount of time[…] Some teams were on crunch for quite some time. In cinematics, we were probably in crunch from June until a good few months later…no overtime pay or anything like that.”

“Eight hours was the minimum requirement, but people were doing way more for sure,” Wilson said. “I was doing way over an additional eight hours a week…there were people who were certainly not appreciative of having to work those extra hours, but a lot of people just had to bite the bullet. I think Cinematics were crunching for somewhere between six to nine months. Some people racked up a lot of extra hours, and that’s outside of the general day-to-day stuff. People were already doing extra hours, and then they introduced the crunch as well.”

When asked about his decision to speak out against the studio’s policy publicly, Wilson said that the leadership’s use of Teramind monitoring software, along with its lack of respect for the development team, ended up being the proverbial straws that broke the camel’s back.

“Basically, the Teramind monitoring and the blatant lack of respect for the staff, where they were not being honest about the reasons for the monitoring, why they started it, when they started it—that was like finding that nail in the coffin for me,” he said.

MindsEye is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more, check out our review. Also, take a look at the lawsuit filed by the studio’s employees about leadership violating their privacy by making use of Teramind.

We previously reported on how the update was going to name some names, and we’re now able to dive into Blacklisted, which sees Julia Black, a world-class assassin, head to Redrock to eliminate two high-profile targets. She does so on behalf of the Meridian agency, which is reportedly facing threats both internal and external. It’s a little on the nose if you know what’s been going on in the real world, but we’re willing to roll with it if it helps breathe some life into MindsEye.

Aside from Blacklisted, PC players get a few new nodes to the Build ARCADIA mode, although there’s no news on when races and the race builder are coming to consoles aside from a release window sometime this year. The new nodes include Points of Interest, Weapon Status, NPC Ambient Voice, and a few more, alongside improvements to existing ones. There are also general improvements and fixes for the main game. You can check out a few details below and the full announcement from the studio on Steam.

Improvements 

AI & NPC

• Civilian NPCs are more reactive to their environment and will flee in response to certain sights.
• Enemy AI is now prevented from entering or leaving cover while reloading.

Audio

• Improved environmental sound effects.
• Sound effects have been added to the mission ‘Out of Bounds’ notification, which was previously hard to notice.

Bug Fixes 

• Resolved various minor bug fixes across MindsEye.

BUILD ARCADIA – (PC)

 Improvements 

Logic Nodes (New Logic Objects & Nodes)

• Added the ‘Point of Interest’ node. This node can be used to make Players and NPCs automatically look at an object in close vicinity or a point of interest in a given area.
• Introduced the ‘Get Weapon Status’ and ‘On Weapon Status Changed’ nodes. These nodes allow players to understand whether any actor currently has their weapon drawn or holstered and automatically trigger whenever an actor draws or holsters their weapon.
• Added the ‘NPC Ambient Voice’ node. This node gives the player the ability to turn on or off the ambient shouts and SFX for specified NPC actors.

Representatives of the IWGB have noted that the software—Teramind—was only removed from employees’ devices last month after 40 of them signed a collective grievance about the incident. Studio leaders have also refused to reveal what kind of data was collected from the employees. In a statement, the union said that the studio’s co-leads, Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies, had confirmed the installation of Teramind without the knowledge of employees.

“The IWGB Game Workers Union, representing the workers, alleges that [Build A Rocket Boy]’s use of the software violates both data protection laws and the workforce’s basic dignity, exceeding the legitimate remit of monitoring workers’ productivity or safeguarding the company’s security by recording individuals in their homes and without their consent,” said the union in its statement. “In an internal meeting which was leaked to the press, bosses Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies confirmed that the software Teramind had been installed without workers’ knowledge. The programme tracks users’ key strokes, records screen activity, and captures microphone audio.”

Separate legal claims had also been filed by IWGB members earlier this month related to the alleged mishandling of the redundancy processes announced back in March. In another statement, lead cinematic animator and union member Chris Wilson has also called the studio’s “toxic culture of secrecy and micromanaging” the worst he had ever experienced.

“Build A Rocket Boy’s toxic culture of secrecy and micromanaging is one of the worst I’ve seen in a 20-year career in the gaming industry,” he said.

“While they have conceded to our headline demand of removing Teramind from our devices, many questions still remain about their actions. It can only be assumed this software was added as a part of their effort to micromanage us, a product of their mistrust of their employees. It created an atmosphere of unease, something that doesn’t lead to great video game production.”

Gerhard had announced lay-offs affecting Build A Rocket Boy back in March, noting that “the launch period [of MindsEye] was affected by factors beyond normal operational challenges and a competitive environment.” He went on to double down on claims of sabotage against the studio and said that Build A Rocket Boy was working with external partners and legal advisors. This has “now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organised espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving toward prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet.”

MindsEye was released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S back in June 2025. For more details, check out our review. While critical reception has been quite negative since launch, Build A Rocket Boy has continued to support the title with post-launch updates.

As for what Build A Rocket Boy has been working on, one of the new additions to MindsEye is going to be the Blacklisted mission, which puts players in the shoes of world-class assassin Julia Black. Players will be sent to Redrock City with the mission of eliminating two key targets, all while being under pressure from internal and external threats. Throughout the mission, players will have to infiltrate a criminal network, sabotage a deadly deal, and uncover mysteries in the espionage-driven story.

ARCADIA is also getting some upgrades thanks to the introduction of multiplayer races, where players can compete head-to-head with each other in competitive modes. More details about this are slated to be revealed as the studio gets closer to launching the feature. The Race Builder is also going to come to console versions of MindsEye this year.

IO Interactive had announced the end of its publishing deal for MindsEye last month. In a statement, it said that any of its involvement with the game was coming to an end. As part of this, the planned Hitman crossover mission has also been cancelled.

“IOI Partners’ involvement with MindsEye comes to an end, except for any essential transitional functions required to transfer publisher-of-record status to Build A Rocket Boy,” said IO Interactive. “In light of this separation, the Hitman mission announced in June 2025, planned as a crossover event within MindsEye, will no longer be released. Both IOI Partners and Build A Rocket Boy recognize the anticipation this collaboration generated among the community and express their appreciation for the support shown by the players.”

In the meantime, Build A Rocket Boy’s CEO and CTO, Mark Gerhard, had recently doubled down on previous claims of corporate espionage and sabotage being responsible for the commercial failure of MindsEye. In a statement, he announced that these saboteurs will be somehow related to the targets of the Blacklisted mission detailed above.

“We’ve got very strong evidence of this and conducted quite thorough investigations over the months since launch,” said Gerhard. “We’ve identified parties involved, and it’s now with the authorities both [in the] U.K. and U.S. to deal with. I can confirm that they’re assisting us with this investigation, but it’s also in their hands now. We’ll leave them to do what they do, make their arrests or any announcements in due course. I think we’re not saying anything further at this stage on that. We’ll just let the natural course of justice take its path.”

Build A Rocket Boy has been facing quite a rough time since the release of MindsEye, with March marking another round of lay-offs hitting the studio. At the time, Gerhard blamed “organized espionage and corporate sabotage”. His statements drew in quite a bit of criticism from many in the industry, including Riot Games’ Nic McConnell.

MindsEye is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for more details.

“We’ve got very strong evidence of this and conducted quite thorough investigations over the months since launch. We’ve identified parties involved, and it’s now with the authorities both [in the] U.K. and U.S. to deal with. I can confirm that they’re assisting us with this investigation, but it’s also in their hands now. We’ll leave them to do what they do, make their arrests or any announcements in due course. I think we’re not saying anything further at this stage on that. We’ll just let the natural course of justice take its path.”

It’s a rather tricky situation all around. Although we tried to be optimistic about the chances of a reversal of MindsEye’s fortunes after its disastrous launch, that prospect’s looking fairly bleak in the wake of a update that could invite further controversy (instead of actually, you know, making Redrock an exciting place to visit this time around). While time will tell if the allegations of sabotage are true, we think it’s safe to say that Blacklist is going to be a memorable addition to a forgettable game, although it may not be in a way that Gerhard is expecting.

All that’s left now is to wait, as a release date for the update isn’t confirmed at this point, but we’ll let you know when that happens. For what it’s worth, we think naming it Blacklist is a little on the nose.

Following the end of its publishing collaboration with IO Interactive, which saw MindEye’s upcoming collaboration with the Hitman franchise come to an abrupt end, the rumors are now the latest additions to a string of bad news that has plagued the embattled studio founded by Leslie Benzies, a former Rockstar Games executive.

Despite MindsEye’s lofty ambitions, it proved to be an average title that failed to impress critics and players before it crashed and burned last year. However, Build A Rocket Boy has been trying to bring about a revival of its fortunes, although those efforts may be in vain at this point.

With around 50 developers potentially facing the loss of their jobs, the studio might be hard-pressed to bring its plans for MindEye’s redemption to bear any fruit. While it remains to be seen if the rumors are true, they certainly won’t help rebuild the studio’s crumbling image in the eyes of the world. As always, stay tuned for more updates as the downward spiral of Build A Rocket Boy continues.

INFO Origami – Co-développeuse du très mal né MindsEye, la société Build A Rocket Boy France est placée en liquidation judiciaire.Il s'agit de l'antenne montpelliéraine du groupe UK fondé par l'ex-Rockstar Leslie Benzies.BARB France emploierait encore une 50aine de personnes à l'heure actuelle.

— Gauthier 'Gautoz' Andres (@gautoz.cool) 2026-03-23T15:35:08.147Z

A press release from IO Interactive announced the transition, stating that the two companies were working to ensure a smooth conclusion. “IOI Partners’ involvement with MindsEye comes to an end, except for any essential transitional functions required to transfer publisher-of-record status to Build A Rocket Boy…In light of this separation, the Hitman mission announced in June 2025, planned as a crossover event within MindsEye, will no longer be released. Both IOI Partners and Build A Rocket Boy recognize the anticipation this collaboration generated among the community and express their appreciation for the support shown by the players.”

Build A Rocket Boy continues to entertain collaborations with other partners; however, it turns out that the rumors regarding the Hitman collaboration’s cancellation turned out to be true. Whether or not that’s a disappointment to you depends on your excitement for the whole thing, but with MindsEye being as unimpressive as it was, we’re probably not going to be feeling too bad about this one.

It’s unclear what the future holds for the embattled studio and its equally troubled game. However, perhaps things could improve once the ambitious ten-year plan from the studio’s co-CEO Leslie Benzies comes into effect and revitalizes it. We’re not holding our breath, though, especially with Benzies having taken a temporary leave of absence.

Further in the statement, Gerhard decided to double-down on previous claims of sabotage against the studio. Without going into too many details, in his statement, the CEO has said that working with external partners and legal advisors has “now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organised espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving toward prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet.”

This statement has been met by quite a bit of criticism in the post’s comments section. Riot Games’ Nic McConnell, for instance, noted that Gerhard should not have combined the announcement of lay-offs with his own conspiracy theories. “These are people, this is their livelihood and your post is disrespectful to their contributions,” he wrote.

Gerhard had first brought up the conspiracy theory of there being a “concerted effort” by an unknown entity to finance negativity towards MindsEye all the way back in May 2025.

“I just said that there is a concerted effort by some people that don’t want to see [co-CEO Leslie Benzies] or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful that are making a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio,” wrote Gerhard the company’s official Discord server. “It’s pretty easy to see the bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out.”

More recently, as caught by IGN, Gerhard had accused YouTuber Cyber Boi of “media manipulation, espionage, sabotage” through another post on Discord.

“It is profoundly disappointing to learn that certain BARB employees continue to leak confidential information to you, thereby betraying their colleagues, our studio, and the broader community we serve,” he wrote.

“This letter serves as a formal cease and desist demand: You must immediately stop all activities related to receiving, disseminating, or otherwise utilizing any confidential information from BARB, as well as any further involvement in media manipulation, espionage, sabotage, or interference targeting our organization. Failure to comply will result in escalated legal action.”

“Rest assured, you and your associates involved in this media manipulation cabal will be served with legal papers imminently, as BARB proceeds with complaints alleging criminal espionage, sabotage, and interference. You are all in very serious trouble.”

Build a Rocket Boy has seen plenty of criticism, even from its own former employees. Back in February, several employees had called out the studio’s leadership for refusing to take accountability, and instead blaming “saboteurs inside and outside the company trying to take us down.” In the meantime, a spokesperson had also confirmed that Benzies had taken “a well-earned temporary leave to recharge after more than a year of working around the clock.”

MindsEye, for those still curious, is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review of its launch version for more details.

Speaking about the lay-offs affecting the studio, one former employee noted that leadership didn’t offer any real explanation for it. Rather, they pointed their fingers towards “saboteurs inside and outside the company trying to take us down.” This employee also noted that co-CEO Leslie Benzies refused to take any responsibility for the problems faced by Build a Rocket Boy.

“I’d hoped for more of an explanation about the layoffs and our company situation,” said the former employee. “But instead, we’d been told there were saboteurs inside and outside the company trying to take us down. Leslie didn’t seem to take any blame for the game’s launch. It was genuinely offensive that he didn’t trust his own employees. The idea that we’d sabotage a game we’d spent countless hours working on was just rude to me.”

Former lead data analyst at the studio, Ben Newbon, commented on the feature creep that afflicted MindsEye during its development. He noted that the game could have turned out well if there was a focus on polish and “tightening everything up”. However, Benzies would get fascinated by a new idea, which he would then insist be implemented into MindsEye.

“If management had concentrated on tightening everything up at that point, then it could have worked,” said Newbon. “But instead, they kept on trying to throw extra stuff on it. Leslie’s eye would be caught by something in particular and then insist this extra feature be added in, even like a month before launch. There wasn’t enough time to test those things and to get all the pieces in place to actually make it work without it breaking.”

Many staff members have also spoken about how much the development of MindsEye suffered due to the studio’s need to appease Benzies. “They crushed their own talent under the yoke of appeasing a single person at the very top,” they said. Another noted that: “[Benzies] may have had a winning formula if he’d have listened to the advice from the literal hundreds of fantastic, insanely talented, and hard-working industry professionals they spent so much time and money hiring.”

A spokesperson for Build a Rocket Boy has also confirmed that Benzies is currently on “a well-earned temporary leave to recharge after more than a year of working around the clock.”

This is far from the first time former employees of Build a Rocket Boy have spoken about the leadership’s failure during the development of MindsEye. Back in October, Newbon had noted that there were plenty of points during development where feedback was ignored by the leadership.

In the meantime, the studio has also become the subject of legal trouble at the hands of Britain’s IWGB Game Workers trade union. In a letter condemning the Build a Rocket Boy leadership, the union has also confirmed that it is looking into legal recourse for its former employees.