It Sounds Like MindsEye Is Leading To Major Layoffs At The Studio

Potentially 100+ of the 500 staff

by Fraser Gilbert Mon 23rd Jun 2025

It Sounds Like MindsEye Is Leading To Major Layoffs At The Studio

It probably won't come as much of a surprise to hear that MindsEye, which is one of the most controversial Xbox games of 2025 so far, is apparently leading to mass layoffs at the new development studio Build a Rocket Boy.

A report from IGN mentions that over 100 employees are potentially affected according to "studio sources", which represents 1/5 (or more) of the entire workforce which stands at somewhere around 500 employees.

"The cuts could affect over 100 employees, studio sources have told IGN."

This puts the future of MindsEye in doubt, but more importantly means a lot of talented team members will seemingly be out of work - and remember, these folks are very talented, regardless of what anyone thinks of MindsEye itself.

Personally, I quite like MindsEye despite acknowledging that it clearly wasn't ready to launch, and some of the work they did with the cutscenes and driving mechanics, for example, was really stellar stuff. Who knows what the future holds for Build a Rocket Boy and these laid off team members, but here's hoping everyone lands on their feet.

You can check out my thoughts on why "I'm enjoying MindsEye on Xbox right now" elsewhere on Pure Xbox:

[source ign.com]

Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.

1
Kaloudz
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

Sadly that's just the state of the market. It's a vicious place when it wants to be. If something doesn't sell, and it's cost more to make than it rakes in, the shame is, costs need to be met. Unfortunately, job cuts are usually one of the first port of calls :/

2
themightyant
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

@Kaloudz It's the state of almost any market. Sell a dud, lose a lot of money and funding will dry up leading to layoffs. But video games are particularly volatile with their huge costs.

3
dskatter
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

If you release a shoddy product and people call you on said shoddy product, and before releasing said shoddy product you make accusations that anyone saying it looks like a shoddy product is part of a coordinated negativity campaign…oh, and you don’t allow people to review the shoddy product before it reaches the general public…

Well, let’s just say I am shocked, SHOCKED at this turn of events. Shocked.

4
bazchillin
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

If a team is this size and hasn’t delivered a proper game before, a botched launch like this is hardly surprising. You’d expect that with the resources at their disposal, they’d at least be able to get the fundamentals right, things like stability, core gameplay mechanics, and basic polish. I always wonder what teams of this scale are actually doing during development if they end up missing the mark on things that should be industry-standard by now. With a smaller indie team you could understand it, but with this budget and manpower, it really raises questions about priorities, management, and experience. Players deserve better.

5
Coletrain
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

As with above comments, stupid to release the game in this state. Be useful to know whose idea it was to release before the product was ready without proper beta testing, because they would have known full well that the game would lead to layoffs without a delay. Utterly bonkers management

6
Lrapsody
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

It doesn't strike me as the Saints Row reboot was, it doesn't seem like a trash game; it seems like effort went into this, but it was rushed out.

7
Ricky-Spanish
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

@Lrapsody Exactly id say eventually with enough updates this would be a great game!
And I enjoyed the most recent saints row it was a fun game once you know it's not going to be the most polished game!

8
AverageGamer
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

@bazchillin Studio is actually working on multiple game at once. Mindseye was initial a proof of concept for their real game Everywhere, and originally suppose to be a Episodic video game... this was back in mid of 2023. So between mid 2023 and mid 2025. It went from an episodic video game to a GTA clone?

9
Krzzystuff
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

I don't understand it... are there metrics showing that launching broken unfinished products actually makes money? Did they just run out of money and it was a now or never moment? With so many titles to play and a lot of it F2P you gotta come out swinging. Hopefully investors and management get the memo.

10
KayUK
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

Don't the dev teams normally scale down after a release anyway?

11
Simu001
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

It sucks for those that are being let go. But I think it's hardly surprising considering the negativity fostered by the main creative mind behind it. Criticism isnt meant to put you down even if soem use it like that. Criticism is a tool and a valuable one at that. But if you shut down any Criticism and you release a broken product, well you reap what you sow......

12
Kaloudz
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

@themightyant Very true, very true indeed. It's sad and all, but it's just one of those things. In the case of this game, I think we'd be seeing an entirely different story had the game been delivered issue-free.

13
Old_Man_Harper
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

It would be nice if it could be included on a free play day - I’d be interested to give it a go and make my own mind up.

14
darylb24
Mon 23rd Jun 2025

BARB legal team is doing everything they can to stop some (allegedly) major info from coming out via a large gaming journalist, but it's only a matter of time. It will all be coming out soon enough and no doubt a new article will be here.