Following the action-adventure game’s poor reception, Build A Rocket Boy studio founder Leslie Benzies has claimed that “saboteurs” within the company are to blame for the failure of MindsEye.
Build A Rocket Boy studio founder Leslie Benzies has alleged that “saboteurs” within the company are to blame for the failure of MindsEye.
The action-adventure title received a poor reception when it released in June 2025, and Benzies has now claimed that “internal and external forces” caused MindsEye to crash and burn.
In a transcript of an internal meeting at Build A Rocket Boy – which was verified by the BBC – Benzies said: “I find it disgusting that anyone could sit amongst us, behave like this and continue to work here.”
Even so, several developers have alleged Benzies is not innocent, claiming that MindsEye did not have a clear vision or direction under the studio boss.
A former developer named Jamie said: “Leslie never decided what game he wanted to make. There was no coherent direction”.
Developers have also said they had to prioritise what Benzies thought was important – drawing focus away from other areas of the game that needed attention.
Former lead data analyst Ben Newbon added: “It didn’t matter what else you were doing, what else was being worked on, the Leslie ticket had to be taken care of.”
Newbon claimed developers rarely received a response when they flagged issues with MindsEye.
He said: “A lot of the points that we were hammering home on were just ignored and just never actioned.”
As a result of MindsEye’s failure, Build A Rocket Boy let go of between 250 and 350 staff.
Build A Rocket Boy told the BBC staff had “poured passion, creativity, and hard work into our games and our studio”, adding it was “deeply saddened” and “didn’t anticipate having to make redundancies after launch”.
MindsEye boss claims ‘saboteurs’ within Build A Rocket Boy are to blame for poor reception
