GTA creator Build A Rocket Boy announces massive layoffs after MindsEye flop

Build A Rocket Boy, the studio founded by former Grand Theft Auto V producer Leslie Benzies, has launched a major restructuring, laying off more than 100 staff. The UK office, where around 300 of the studio’s 500 employees work, will be hit the hardest. In accordance with local law, the layoffs will take place during a 45-day consultation period.

A statement from Build A Rocket Boy confirmed the need for changes, but stressed the desire to minimise job losses. The developers acknowledged that the launch of MindsEye was an important but difficult milestone, revealing a significant gap between the current state of the project and the original ambitions. The studio promised to focus on improving the game through updates, while also working on the stability of future releases.



MindsEye, announced as an ambitious project from the creator of GTA V, faced catastrophically low figures - the peak online on Steam did not exceed 3.3 thousand players, and current activity fell to 50-100 users. Critics and players unanimously criticized the project, as evidenced by 37% positive reviews on Steam and extremely low scores on Metacritic. The failure of the debut game called into question the reputation of Leslie Benzies, whose experience working on the cult Rockstar series did not help to avoid commercial and critical failure.