{"id":85508,"date":"2026-09-17T02:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85508"},"modified":"2026-09-17T02:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:34:16","slug":"mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85508","title":{"rendered":"MindsEye Developer Build A Rocket Boy Is Reportedly Shutting Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subtitle\">Several employees have said they&#8217;re leaving the studio.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"slide-key image-holder gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap  lead-image-holder\" data-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2260473\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down\/\" data-post-title=\"MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy is reportedly shutting down\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-post-id=\"2260473\">\n<picture id=\"p5162769ca97db26bd66de35fb00b995b\">&#13;<source media=\"(min-width: 429px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down\/intro-1789580821.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">&#13;<source media=\"(max-width: 428px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down\/intro-1789580821.sm.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">&#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down\/intro-1789580821.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2260473\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down\/\" data-post-id=\"2260473\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-slide-title=\"MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy is reportedly shutting down: \" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Video game screenshot of a person's face illuminated by a circle and cross lighting.\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n                    <\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n                    <span class=\"gallery-image-credit\">Build A Rocket Boy<\/span>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Build A Rocket Boy (BARB), the developer of the widely maligned action-adventure game <em>MindsEye<\/em>, appears to be shutting down. Several employees wrote on LinkedIn that their time at the studio is &#8220;coming to an end,&#8221; and <em>Kotaku<\/em> reported that BARB is set to close its doors for good.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;With a very heavy heart I raise my green banner, along with the rest of my colleagues at Build a Rocket Boy. I am &#8216;Open to Work&#8217; actively looking for a new adventure,&#8221; BARB&#8217;s principal talent acquisition partner Dan Hawkins wrote, implying that all of the studio&#8217;s employees are out of a job. &#8220;I will be seeing BARB through till the very end, helping wrap things up here in the HR department.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>MindsEye<\/em> had a disastrous debut in June 2025, with PlayStation said to have issued refunds to some players who checked out the game in its initial bug-riddled state. A round of layoffs followed soon after the Grand Theft Auto-esque game&#8217;s release while BARB founder (and former GTA producer) Leslie Benzies reportedly blamed its woes on &#8220;saboteurs&#8221; inside and outside the company.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The studio released an expansion for <em>MindsEye<\/em> this spring. It contained a mission it claimed would expose some evidence of the purported conspiracy that ruined the game&#8217;s chances for success. This had no juicy details about said &#8220;scandal&#8221; and was just a humdrum riff on a Hitman mission, according to <em>Rock Paper Shotgun<\/em>. The addition of multiplayer and a Rocket League-esque soccer mode this summer didn&#8217;t exactly turn around <em>MindsEye<\/em>&#8216;s fortunes either.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">BARB became the sole publisher of <em>MindsEye<\/em> in March after parting ways with IOI Partners, an arm of <em>007 First Light<\/em> developer IO Interactive. Further rounds of layoffs took place that month and in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Earlier this year, dozens of employees accused the studio of spying on them. According to the IWGB Game Workers Union, BARB &#8220;management installed invasive Teramind surveillance software onto their devices without their knowledge&#8221; and went beyond &#8220;monitoring workers&#8217; productivity or safeguarding the company&#8217;s security by recording individuals in their homes and without their consent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2260473\/mindseye-developer-build-a-rocket-boy-is-reportedly-shutting-down\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several employees have said they&#8217;re leaving the studio. &#13;&#13;&#13; &#13; Build A Rocket Boy Build A Rocket Boy (BARB), the developer of the widely maligned&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2326,3219,3697,17250,3465,4973,8319],"class_list":["post-85508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-boy","tag-build","tag-developer","tag-mindseye","tag-reportedly","tag-rocket","tag-shutting","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}