Build A Rocket Boy staff are reportedly planning a protest outside the studio's Edinburgh offices over an all-expenses-paid MindsEye fan event, amid layoffs, union action, and continued scrutiny after the game's troubled launch.
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Build A Rocket Boy staff reportedly plan Edinburgh picket over MindsEye event
Build A Rocket Boy employees are reportedly planning to picket outside the studio’s Edinburgh offices on Saturday, July 11, at 10am local time, protesting an all-expenses-paid MindsEye fan event the company is hosting this weekend. Eurogamer reports that members of the studio behind MindsEye will gather outside the premises, joined by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain, other union representatives, and members of the public.
The tension is straightforward and hard to dodge: according to Eurogamer, the studio is funding travel for members of the game’s fan community so they can play an updated build of MindsEye with new features, while workers are objecting to that spend in the wake of multiple rounds of layoffs. GamesIndustry.biz also reports, citing Eurogamer, that Build A Rocket Boy staff organized the protest in response to the event, and notes the studio has made significant headcount cuts since MindsEye released in June 2025.
Build A Rocket Boy has continued trying to move MindsEye forward after launch, but this reported protest turns a community-facing showcase into a labor dispute. For players, the event was supposed to signal that the game still has a roadmap. For staff, according to the reporting, it has become a visible symbol of priorities inside a studio still carrying the damage from a rough release and repeated redundancies.
The fan event is aimed at rebuilding confidence, but staff say the timing is the problem
The event itself has not been described in the source material as a public convention-style showcase. Eurogamer describes it as an all-expenses-paid affair where selected MindsEye community members will be flown in to play an updated build containing new features. Instant Gaming, summarizing Eurogamer’s report, says players will be hosted on-site and have airfare fully covered.
That matters because MindsEye’s biggest problem since launch has been trust. GamesIndustry.biz says the game was poorly received when it launched, with players reporting bugs and performance issues, sponsored marketing streams canceled at the last minute, and dismal reviews. The studio has kept shipping updates, according to GamesIndustry.biz, including a free starter pack trial on all platforms in November. In February, Build A Rocket Boy announced what GamesIndustry.biz called a “new phase of ongoing development” for MindsEye, marking its first notable PR push since launch.
Seen from the outside, flying in fans to test new features fits the shape of a recovery campaign. Shooters and action games live or die on feel, pacing, and technical stability, and a studio trying to prove that a troubled game has improved often needs hands-on player testimony. The reported staff objection is not that MindsEye has a community event at all. It is that the studio is funding that event after layoffs that affected large numbers of employees. That is the center of the MindsEye protest, and the reason the Build A Rocket Boy controversy is not going away with a new build alone.
Layoff figures differ by report, but every account points to deep cuts
The reporting on Build A Rocket Boy’s layoffs does not line up into one clean number, and that is worth spelling out. Eurogamer reports that a little over one year ago, shortly after MindsEye’s release, the studio initiated a redundancy process and notified more than 100 employees they were being laid off. Eurogamer also reports that another round of layoffs took place in March after a major MindsEye update, followed by a further 170 employees being let go in May after the studio shipped a new campaign mission.
GamesIndustry.biz gives a broader figure, saying Build A Rocket Boy is thought to have laid off around 300 developers in June 2025, with further redundancies confirmed earlier this year. The difference between “over 100,” “around 300,” and later reported cuts may reflect separate stages of redundancy processes, different sourcing, or different counting of affected roles. The provided reports do not resolve that discrepancy, so the safest conclusion is narrower: multiple outlets report substantial layoffs at Build A Rocket Boy following MindsEye’s launch, with further redundancies continuing into the game’s post-launch update period.
That context changes the fan event from a routine marketing beat into a workplace flashpoint. An all-expenses-paid MindsEye fan event may be a relatively small expense compared with development budgets, but labor disputes are rarely judged only by the spreadsheet total. They are judged by what a company appears willing to fund, who remains employed, and how leadership explains those choices to the people building the game.
The protest follows surveillance allegations and an open letter from workers
The reported picket is also connected to a wider dispute between Build A Rocket Boy leadership and current and former staff. Eurogamer reports that studio founder Leslie Benzies and co-CEO Mark Gerhard alleged “organised espionage and corporate sabotage” affected MindsEye’s development and undermined the game. Eurogamer says a May campaign mission was pitched as depicting the alleged sabotage the studio experienced during development.
According to Eurogamer, the effort to identify alleged saboteurs led Build A Rocket Boy to install Teramind, described in the report as “invasive surveillance software,” on worker devices. Eurogamer says the software has since been removed. The IWGB Game Workers Union alleges the use of Teramind violated employee data protection and privacy, and Eurogamer reports the union initiated legal action against Build A Rocket Boy in April in response.
That is a separate issue from the fan event, but it sits in the same trust deficit. Eurogamer also reported that 93 current and former Build A Rocket Boy employees, alongside the Game Workers Branch of IWGB, signed a letter in October last year criticizing studio leadership over what the letter called “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment.” The protest this weekend, if it proceeds as reported, is another public sign that the dispute between Build A Rocket Boy staff and management has moved far beyond normal post-launch pressure.
MindsEye’s recovery push is now competing with its own workplace story
For a game like MindsEye, a clean comeback requires a few basics: updates that address technical complaints, communication that players trust, and a development team stable enough to keep shipping. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Build A Rocket Boy has continued to push updates despite the layoffs. It also reports the studio released a free starter pack trial on all platforms in November, and that February’s “new phase of ongoing development” was part of a reset and marketing push.
At the same time, GamesIndustry.biz reports that IOI Partners, the publishing division of IO Interactive, and Build A Rocket Boy concluded their publishing agreement for MindsEye in March. The source material does not provide the current publishing structure after that agreement ended, nor does it say whether this weekend’s fan event is tied to a specific public release date, patch number, price change, or platform-specific update.
That leaves players with a practical gap. Eurogamer says attendees will play an updated build with new features, but none of the provided reports name those features, confirm when they will reach the public, or say whether they address the bugs and performance issues players reported at launch. Eurogamer’s article lists MindsEye for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, while GamesIndustry.biz says the free starter pack trial reached all platforms. Beyond that, anyone deciding whether to return should wait for concrete patch notes, performance data, and platform details rather than treating a closed fan event as proof that the game’s issues are solved.
The unanswered question is whether Build A Rocket Boy can repair two audiences at once
The hardest part of the Build A Rocket Boy controversy is that the studio appears to be trying to win back two groups with different needs. Players need a better MindsEye, clearer communication, and evidence that updates improve the actual game in front of them. Staff, according to the reports around the protest, want accountability over spending priorities, layoffs, surveillance allegations, and management conduct.
Those needs can collide. A fan event can create footage, feedback, and word of mouth for a game that badly needs a second look. But if workers are standing outside the studio protesting that same event, the message becomes split before anyone talks about gunplay, missions, performance, or new features. In competitive terms, Build A Rocket Boy is trying to retake the map while its own spawn is under pressure.
What is confirmed from the provided reporting is limited but significant: Eurogamer reports staff plan to picket the Edinburgh office on July 11 over an all-expenses-paid fan event, and GamesIndustry.biz corroborates the story while adding broader post-launch context around layoffs, poor reception, continued updates, the free starter pack trial, and the ended IOI Partners publishing agreement. What remains unconfirmed is how many fans are attending, how much the event costs, what new features are being shown, when those features will ship publicly, and whether Build A Rocket Boy will respond to the protest before the weekend.