Build a Rocket Boy’s MindsEye Disaster: Inside the Collapse of a $200 Million Dream
In July 2025, employees at Build a Rocket Boy, a highly anticipated video game studio based in Edinburgh, were called into an all-staff meeting that would change everything. Their debut title, MindsEye, a sci-fi adventure years in the making, had launched just three weeks earlier — and was already being described as “broken,” “buggy,” and “the worst game of 2025.”
Addressing staff via video call, Leslie Benzies, the studio’s founder and CEO, tried to calm nerves. He assured the team there was a plan to fix things and dismissed the wave of negative press as “uncalled for.” But then his tone shifted dramatically.
Benzies accused “internal and external forces” of sabotaging the game’s release, vowing to root out “saboteurs” within the company.
“I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this, and continue to work here,” Benzies said, according to a verified transcript obtained by BBC Newsbeat.
The accusation stunned employees — many of whom had already been informed a week earlier that layoffs were coming. To them, there was no conspiracy. The reason MindsEye failed was painfully clear: it wasn’t ready.
The Fall of a Rockstar Veteran
Leslie Benzies isn’t an ordinary studio head. He’s a legendary figure in gaming — the man once credited with shaping the success of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) during his tenure at Rockstar Games. His creative leadership helped turn GTA into one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history.
After leaving Rockstar in 2016 — amid a bitter legal dispute over unpaid royalties that was eventually settled out of court — Benzies founded Build a Rocket Boy (Barb) the same year. The company promised bold ideas and total creative freedom.
By the end of 2024, Build a Rocket Boy had grown to nearly 450 employees, operating out of a stylish headquarters in Leith, Edinburgh, with additional studios in Budapest and Montpellier, France. Salaries were competitive, remote work was supported, and the company’s pandemic response earned praise from staff.
Investors poured in more than £233 million ($285 million), according to public records. Yet despite the vast funding, the studio had no released games — and its financial statements revealed over £200 million in losses between 2020 and 2024.
A Vision Without Direction
The company’s first major project, Everywhere, began as an ambitious open-world role-playing game (RPG) set in a futuristic city. One former employee, referred to as Jamie, described it as “something quite special.” But that excitement quickly turned to frustration.
According to Jamie, Benzies constantly requested new features and changes, demanding updates faster than the team could deliver. “Leslie never decided what game he wanted to make,” Jamie recalled. “There was no coherent direction.”
Eventually, the focus shifted from Everywhere to MindsEye, a cinematic sci-fi action game that had originally been designed as a smaller experience within Everywhere.
That lack of focus, former developers say, plagued the project from the start — leading to endless reworks, last-minute design changes, and mounting internal confusion.
“Leslie Tickets” and a Culture of Fear
In an open letter signed by 93 current and former employees, workers accused management of making “radical changes without consulting staff” and ignoring internal feedback.
Former lead data analyst Ben Newbon recalled how decisions from upper management often came suddenly, without warning or explanation. His team regularly presented player data and staff feedback to leadership — but their concerns were “just ignored,” he said.
Margherita “Marg” Peloso, an associate producer who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said attempts to raise concerns were sometimes “laughed at” in meetings. “People were scared to speak up,” Marg said.
Several employees described a culture of micromanagement centered around Benzies himself. A now-removed video on the official MindsEye YouTube channel reportedly showed him directing someone to log a game issue as he played — a routine that insiders say happened constantly.
These tasks became infamous within the studio as “Leslie tickets” — high-priority assignments that always took precedence. Developers said they could range from small visual tweaks to deleting entire missions. “It didn’t matter what else you were doing — the Leslie ticket had to be taken care of,” said Ben.
Jamie added that this constant interference created chaos: “Teams couldn’t take ownership of their work. Everything changed on a whim.”
The Crunch Before the Collapse
When the studio announced MindsEye’s release for June 2025, employees say it triggered months of intense “crunch” — a term in the games industry for mandatory overtime.
According to multiple former staff, most workers were expected to work an extra eight unpaid hours per week between February and May. They were promised extra leave time after launch — seven hours off for every eight hours of overtime.
“It felt like people were being commanded to give so much without much in return,” said Marg.
Quality assurance testers were reportedly hit hardest. Ben said some suffered physical and mental health issues due to the “stress and pressure.” Audio programmer Isaac Hudd described a chaotic work environment where one team would fix a bug only for another to accidentally reintroduce it.
“Morale just collapsed,” Isaac said. “You started seeing people burn out and think, ‘What’s the point?’”
A Broken Launch
Despite internal warnings, MindsEye launched on June 10, 2025, with champagne toasts at the Edinburgh office. “It was heartwarming but also sad,” said Marg. “Everyone kind of knew this was the last good moment.”
But the celebration didn’t last long.
Reviewers had not received early access copies — a red flag in the gaming world. Within hours of launch, early players encountered serious bugs and performance issues. Characters floated in mid-air, mission scripts failed to load, and a viral clip showed a character’s face literally melting due to a graphical glitch.
Twitch streamer CohhCarnage revealed he was told to cancel a sponsored launch-day stream at the last minute due to the game’s poor state.
“I was optimistic at first,” Isaac said. “But then review after review came in calling it a disaster. That’s when I realized it was over.”
Over the next two weeks, the team scrambled to release emergency “hotfixes” to stabilize the game. But morale continued to sink as rumors of layoffs spread.
By July, the once-promising studio that had raised hundreds of millions was now facing mass redundancies — and a broken dream.
The Fallout of MindsEye
For many inside Build a Rocket Boy, the collapse of MindsEye wasn’t the result of sabotage, but of leadership failures and creative chaos. Despite Benzies’ legendary past, his new studio became a cautionary tale about unchecked ambition, poor communication, and burnout.
“I think people really wanted to believe in the vision,” said one former employee. “But in the end, there was no vision left — just exhaustion.”
As of late 2025, Build a Rocket Boy’s future remains uncertain. MindsEye’s failure has left deep scars on the team, and investors are reportedly reconsidering their support.
The studio that once promised to “build the future of gaming” may now serve as a stark reminder that even the brightest stars can fall — when vision outpaces reality.