Build a Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh studio behind MindsEye, is reportedly closing permanently, with staff across the company posting farewell messages on LinkedIn within the past 24 hours. Kotaku reports that sources familiar with the situation have confirmed the studio is shutting its doors for good. The company has not yet acknowledged the reported closure or the latest layoffs.

What are staff saying?

Multiple developers have used the same framing: the #OpenForWork green banner and references to redundancy. The studio's principal talent acquisition partner for HR operations wrote that they were "seeing BARB through till the very end, helping wrap things up" — language consistent with a wind-down rather than a standard round of cuts.

"Just shy of 5 years here at BARB and one hell of a ride! Being the first hire into our internal recruitment team, taking the studio from 200 to 550 in a short period of time," the recruiter wrote on LinkedIn. That figure marks the scale of the operation at its peak staffing push.

The lead 3D weapon and prop artist posted a similar message: "Unfortunately, along with the rest of my colleagues at Build a Rocket Boy, I am facing redundancy and now looking for a new opportunity."

A Technical Level Designer working on UGC content echoed the pattern: "Hi everyone, much like others at BARB, I find myself once again raising the green banner looking for new opportunities." The phrase "once again" points to prior rounds of departures already endured by remaining staff.

What led to this point?

The reported closure caps a turbulent stretch that spans both development of MindsEye and the period since its June 2025 launch. The rough timeline of the studio's troubles:

• Almost 100 developers signed an open letter alleging debilitating mismanagement, with some filing legal claims.
• The team absorbed multiple rounds of job cuts while Build a Rocket Boy publicly attributed the troubled launch to what it called "corporate sabotage."
• IOI Partners, the publishing division of Hitman developer IO Interactive, stepped down as publisher of MindsEye early this year.
• Game workers protested alleged misconduct outside the studio's Edinburgh office, following legal action from the IWGB Game Workers Union over data privacy allegations tied to surveillance software installed on work devices.

Each of these events chipped away at the studio's operational stability — a publishing partner withdrawal, union litigation, and internal allegations are individually survivable but compounding pressures for a studio whose single released title underperformed.

What changes for the people affected?

If the closure reports hold, the immediate impact lands on a workforce that at one point numbered around 550. The HR staff member's own account — being the first internal recruitment hire and staying through the final wind-down — signals the company is running a structured shutdown process rather than an abrupt lockout.

Redundancy at this scale in Edinburgh and across remote staff puts experienced developers, artists and UGC designers onto the job market simultaneously. The wave of green-banner posts over a single 24-hour window functions as a de facto public talent directory for recruiters watching the platform.

Has the studio responded?

No. Build a Rocket Boy has not commented on the reported layoffs or the closure claims. Game Developer has contacted the studio for corroboration, and the picture currently rests on staff testimony plus Kotaku's sourcing.

That silence leaves open questions about the fate of MindsEye itself — its live operations, its UGC platform ambitions, and who holds publishing and service responsibilities now that IOI Partners exited the role earlier this year.

What happens next?

Watch for two signals: an official statement or statutory filing from Build a Rocket Boy confirming the closure and redundancy terms, and any disclosure about the future of MindsEye's servers and intellectual property. Until the company breaks its silence, the staff posts remain the primary record of the studio's final days.