QUESTIONS have been raised around the future of an Edinburgh-based games studio, launched by one of the main producers of the Grand Theft Auto series, as more employees have been made redundant.
Founded in 2018 by Leslie Benzies, the main producer behind the immensely popular Grand Theft Auto series, Build a Rocket Boy (BARB) has cut hundreds of roles over the last 12 months following a disastrous launch of the company’s first project.
Hailed by those in the industry as the game that would supersede the Grand Theft Auto franchise, MindsEye was a highly anticipated action-adventure game when it launched in June 2025.
However, its launch was marred by controversy, with users claiming it was “broken” and “buggy,” leading it to be one of the worst-rated games of its generation.
Following the game's poor reception, around 300 jobs were cut by the studio in October last year, with around 150 of those roles based at the firm's base in Edinburgh.
Subsequent rounds of layoffs reportedly followed, with fired staff protesting outside the studio this summer.
This week, several remaining employees at the studio have announced on LinkedIn that they have been let go from BARB.
Among those saying they had been laid off were production QA analyst Cameron Deaves, who said his time at the studio was “coming to an end,” along with level designer Liam Shannon and release manager Michaela Emslie.
Dan Hawkins, BARB’s principal talent acquisition partner and HR operations, also implied the rest of the team at the studio had been made redundant.
“With a very heavy heart I raise my green [LinkedIn Open To Work] banner, along with the rest of my colleagues at Build A Rocket Boy,” he wrote on his social media account, according to The Metro.
“I am ‘Open To Work,’ actively looking for a new adventure.”
The extent of the layoffs is currently unclear at this stage, but BARB has been approached by The National.
Although BARB has not announced the studio’s closure, Kotaku reports that the developer is “permanently closing its doors” following the layoffs.
Last year, 93 current and former employees signed an open letter, issued by the Game Workers Branch of the Independent Workers of Great Britain, claiming BARB’s refusal to listen to its staff resulted in “one of the worst video game launches this decade”.
The letter also claimed that all staff were made to work eight hours of overtime per week, with time off in lieu allegedly promised, but at the time had not happened due to “high priority” work still taking place after the release of MindsEye.
Employees also cited burnout, job insecurity and health issues whilst working on the game “that many of us have put years of our lives into”.
