In July this year, workers at Build a Rocket Boy, a video game studio in Edinburgh, were called to an all-staff meeting. Their first ever game, a sci-fi adventure called MindsEye, had been released three weeks earlier - and it had been a total disaster.
Critics and players called it broken, buggy, and the worst game of 2025. Addressing staff via video link, the company's boss, Leslie Benzies, assured them there was a plan to get things back on track and said the negativity they'd seen was uncalled for. Then he pivoted, alleging internal and external forces had been working to scupper the MindsEye launch. He told the assembled workers - who'd been informed they faced redundancy just a week earlier - there would be an effort to root out saboteurs within the company.
Mr. Benzies, known for his work at Rockstar Games, where he was a senior figure on the Grand Theft Auto series, left the company in 2016 after a legal row over unpaid royalties. In 2016, he established Build a Rocket Boy, which had grown to 448 employees by the end of 2024. Sadly, by mid-October 2025, between 250-300 staff were laid off, primarily from the Edinburgh office, sparking outcry from former employees who voiced their dissatisfaction with the handling of the redundancies.
Despite evidence of heavy investment in the studio's development, many insiders felt uncertain about its prospects following the dismaying reception of MindsEye. The studio's accusations of blame-shifting, mismanagement, and failures in leadership have engulfed Benzies amid fears of damaging the future landscape of the Scottish game development scene. As the studio attempts to rally from this launch disaster, former employees express a mix of resolve and skepticism about the road ahead.
Critics and players called it broken, buggy, and the worst game of 2025. Addressing staff via video link, the company's boss, Leslie Benzies, assured them there was a plan to get things back on track and said the negativity they'd seen was uncalled for. Then he pivoted, alleging internal and external forces had been working to scupper the MindsEye launch. He told the assembled workers - who'd been informed they faced redundancy just a week earlier - there would be an effort to root out saboteurs within the company.
Mr. Benzies, known for his work at Rockstar Games, where he was a senior figure on the Grand Theft Auto series, left the company in 2016 after a legal row over unpaid royalties. In 2016, he established Build a Rocket Boy, which had grown to 448 employees by the end of 2024. Sadly, by mid-October 2025, between 250-300 staff were laid off, primarily from the Edinburgh office, sparking outcry from former employees who voiced their dissatisfaction with the handling of the redundancies.
Despite evidence of heavy investment in the studio's development, many insiders felt uncertain about its prospects following the dismaying reception of MindsEye. The studio's accusations of blame-shifting, mismanagement, and failures in leadership have engulfed Benzies amid fears of damaging the future landscape of the Scottish game development scene. As the studio attempts to rally from this launch disaster, former employees express a mix of resolve and skepticism about the road ahead.
