In a surprising twist of fate, Build a Rocket Boy (Barb) has crashed and burned. Once hailed as industry visionaries for their innovative, ambitious projects, this Edinburgh-based game studio now faces dire straits. With studios in Edinburgh, Budapest, and Montpellier, the company had 448 staff by the end of 2024. The company has recently gone through a spectacular implosion. This month alone, between 250 and 300 staff, primarily at its Edinburgh base, were laid off.
Leslie Benzies, former president of developer Rockstar North and the driving force behind the Grand Theft Auto series, established Build a Rocket Boy. His vision was nothing short of a revolution in multiplayer gaming. Its inaugural project, Everywhere, was meant to be an expansive, open-ended RPG experience that takes place in a multi-structured futuristic city. MindsEye, the studio’s inaugural release, was released on June 10th. It all happens in the fictional Redrock City, an eclectic backdrop based off a real-life Las Vegas. Though anticipation was incredibly high, the game has been met with a rather unkind reception all things considered, adding to the studio’s growing deficit.
Although their game hasn’t been released yet, Build a Rocket Boy has still claimed losses of £202.6 million from 2020-2024. The most jaw dropping of these was in 2023 when the studio announced that it lost £59.1 million. Senior management, including Benzies, have publicly taken the blame for the disastrous launch of MindsEye.
It seems the atmosphere inside Build a Rocket Boy has turned toxic very fast. Workers have reported a culture of fear and intimidation, made all the worse when the higher-ups make knee-jerk decisions. One employee, Ben, stated, “A lot of the points that we were hammering home on were just ignored and just never actioned.” Her staff’s discontent is part of a larger narrative that is quickly unfolding at the EPA.
The studio’s leadership enacted harmful, controversial measures to make workers more productive. They figured they could just squeeze an additional eight hours of free labor out of each employee every week. Benzies addressed player concerns regarding the overwhelming amount of tasks. It was a big promise—he told employees they could accumulate seven hours of leave for every eight hours of overtime spent on MindsEye—but it rested on the successful launch of MindsEye.
Needless to say, morale within the studio was greatly affected. Thousands of workers experienced the physical and mental toll caused by the surge of expectations in their jobs. Isaac Hudd, another employee at Build a Rocket Boy, remarked, “You really do start to see the morale go down, the little arguments starting to happen.” This discontent has become palpable as workers began questioning their commitment to the company: “People are burning the candle at both ends and starting to think: ‘What’s the point?’” Hudd added.
Even worse was a present culture in which many felt unappreciated. Margherita “Marg” Peloso expressed her frustration: “People just felt like they were being commanded to give a lot to the company without too much in return.” Employees are rightfully pessimistic these days. Though they may be working harder, it is apparent to them that their increased efforts leave them unacknowledged and unrewarded. That feeling of inequity only deepens.
Even with these odds stacked against him, Benzies shows no sign of backing down from his new leadership position. He’s publicly pledged to fix what’s ailing the studio while staying true to the studio’s ethos and mission. In a candid moment, he expressed his disgust at how some individuals have behaved amidst these challenges: “I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this and continue to work here.”
Not everyone agrees with Benzies’ optimism about where things are headed at Build a Rocket Boy. Jamie, another employee, noted a critical gap in leadership: “Leslie never decided what game he wanted to make.” This massive uncertainty seems to have played a big part in the studio’s difficulties and eventual recent layoffs.