Build A Rocket Boy, the studio behind MindsEye, is reportedly winding down after another round of layoffs, with multiple employees announcing that their time at the company is ending. Kotaku reports that sources familiar with the situation say the Edinburgh-based developer is closing permanently, while several staff posts on LinkedIn describe the latest redundancies in terms that suggest the remaining operation is being wrapped up. Build A Rocket Boy has not publicly announced a formal closure.
Among those confirming their departures are level designer Liam Shannon, QA analyst Elizabet Tyaneva, release manager Michaela Emslie and production QA analyst Cameron Deaves. Principal talent acquisition partner Dan Hawkins also said he would remain with the company “till the very end” while helping the HR department wrap things up. Lead weapon and prop artist Adam Ridsdale separately said he was facing redundancy alongside other colleagues.
Those employee statements go beyond the kind of isolated job losses seen during earlier restructuring rounds, although there is still an important distinction between a studio ceasing operations and its corporate entities being formally dissolved. UK Companies House currently continues to list Build A Rocket Boy Ltd. as active, and no public filing reviewed at the time of writing indicates that the company has entered liquidation or been struck off. That means the operational shutdown being reported should not yet be treated as the same thing as a completed legal dissolution.
The apparent closure follows several rounds of layoffs since MindsEye launched on June 10, 2025. In May 2026, Kotaku reported that roughly 170 employees had been affected by another major restructuring, reducing the studio to around 80 staff according to sources familiar with the cuts. That followed earlier redundancies and the closure of Build A Rocket Boy France.
MindsEye itself had been positioned as the first major commercial release from the company founded by former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies. The game launched for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, combining a cinematic single-player campaign with a broader user-created content platform. Its release was followed by criticism over technical issues and a difficult reception, after which Build A Rocket Boy repeatedly said it intended to continue improving the game.
The company also went through a significant publishing change earlier this year. In March, IO Interactive and Build A Rocket Boy announced the end of their publishing partnership, with Build A Rocket Boy taking over sole publishing responsibility for MindsEye from March 16. The split also resulted in the cancellation of a previously announced Hitman crossover mission.
Despite the restructuring, Build A Rocket Boy continued to support MindsEye through updates and additional content. Its official store pages still describe the game as an expanding experience with new missions, races, puzzles and challenges, while the studio’s website continues to present Build A Rocket Boy as an active independent developer. Those public-facing pages had not been replaced by a closure notice at the time of writing.
The latest employee posts therefore represent the strongest evidence so far that the remaining studio may now be reaching the end of operations. Kotaku says sources directly familiar with the situation confirmed that Build A Rocket Boy is permanently winding down, while other outlets have independently identified the same wave of employee departures. The company has been contacted for comment but has not yet issued a public statement confirming or denying the reported shutdown.
The situation also leaves questions about the future of MindsEye, its ongoing support and Build A Rocket Boy’s other technology and projects. The company had promoted its broader creative tools and the Everywhere concept as part of a larger platform strategy extending beyond the MindsEye campaign. No announcement has yet explained what will happen to those projects, existing player services or future updates if the studio does cease operations.
For now, the clearest confirmed development is another significant round of redundancies, supported by multiple employee statements. Credible reporting indicates that those cuts are part of a full operational wind-down, but Build A Rocket Boy remains legally listed as active and has not formally announced its closure. Until the company comments or new corporate filings appear, the shutdown should therefore be described as reported rather than finalized.
