Last week brought reports of further layoffs at Build A Rocket Boy, the beleaguered studio behind the poorly received 2025 shooter MindsEye. In the wake of that news, the company – which has repeatedly attempted to blame its woes on ‘sabouteurs’ – has filed for administration.
Build A Rocket Boy was founded in 2016 by GTA veteran Leslie Benzies, and its first game, Everywhere, was announced in 2022. Everywhere was envisaged as a user-generated content platform promising to redefine “how players connect with one another and the digital world around them”. But along the way, MindsEye – initially unveiled as a component of Everywhere – evolved into a standalone “AAA” game that eventually released last June.
On release, however, the game was panned by both critics and players, and studio CEO and CTO Mark Gerhard would later describe its arrival as “without doubt, the worst launch in history”. Soon after MindsEye’s arrival, the layoffs began and more followed earlier this year, with Gerhard blaming the studio’s woes on “organised espionage and corporate sabotage”. It’s a narrative he has repeatedly returned to, even as he pledged continued support for the game in June, insisting “people had their hands on the scale and deliberately tried to shape a negative narrative around the product”.
Despite Gerhard’s assurances around MindsEye’s future, reports surfaced last week that yet more layoffs had occurred at Build a Rocket Boy and that the studio was preparing to shut its doors. One week on, Build a Rocket Boy has submitted an administration filing to the UK’s Companies House – not currently publicly available – and confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz it has hired Opus Advisory Group to act as the company’s administrator.
As detailed on the Companies House website, a company under administration (which may be insolvent due to cashflow problems) is placed in “statutory moratorium”, freeing it from creditor enforcement actions while attempts are made to rescue it as a going concern. If it cannot be reasonably saved, the administrator will “aim to achieve a better return for creditors than would be likely if the company were wound up” without first being in administration.
As GamesIndustry.Biz notes, Build a Rocket Boy reported a £47.5m operating loss and a £36.2m net loss for the 12 months ending 30th September. At the time, it owed creditors £61.8m.
When MindsEye launched last June, Eurogamer awarded it one out of five stars saying, “Although it shows some early promise, MindsEye is sunk by a ridiculous story, inconsistent writing, poorly designed mission scenarios, and utterly atrocious combat.”
