When MindsEye was announced earlier this year, it was marketed as something that would revolutionize the industry. Open-world driving, drones, exploration, shooter mechanics were all promised under one game. Nearly £200 million was invested. Expectations were sky-high. When it finally launched on June 10, it was regarded as one of the worst games of 2025.
How could something that was led by Leslie Benzies, the founder of Build a Rocket Boy and former president of Rockstar North fail so epically? Benzies had an answer: sabotage.
According to the BBC, he blamed internal “saboteurs” were trying to destroy his company from within. Looking closer, it isn’t sabotage that explains the game’s failure. It’s the leadership driving the studio itself.
The Limits of Ambition
Mindseye was Benzies’ first project under his own studio. MindsEye was too ambitious for a new, smaller studio to tackle. Scope creep, management challenges only added to the difficulty of delivering a coherent game.
The team behind it faced extreme pressures. Employees reported mandatory overtime. They had to suffer in an environment where the slightest bit of criticism was stifled. The unfinished animations and glitches MindsEye suffered from were the result of a rookie trying to create a AAA-level game.
Blaming the Wrong Enemy
Instead of reflecting on these realities, Benzies chose to blame the people around him. In internal meetings, he condemned “saboteurs” within the company. He called them “disgusting” and vowed to root them out. Within a week of making those comments, staff were informed of redundancies. More than 100 employees have threatened legal action over how they were treated.
This has been Benzies go-to excuse. Someone was sabotaging him. Haters were out to get him, or make him out to be a failure when he wasn’t. Maybe his old employer Rockstar Games was to blame for everything.
The truth is that the only “saboteur” is Benzies’ ego.
The Leadership Problem
Benzies’ reputation from Rockstar North attracted talent, investment, and attention from the media. It also encouraged a “great man” approach to leadership. His vision, his authority outweighed accountability. MindsEye became a reflection of its leader. It was ambitious, flashy, but unpolished.
What the studio needed was a leader capable of managing resources. Someone who could bring in the right people. Listen to critical feedback. He should have realized that MindsEye wasn’t shaping out to be what he’d envisioned. Maybe a lot of the problems that plagued the game wouldn’t exist.
The Only Way Forward
The only thing Benzies can do to help Build a Rocket Boy bounce back is to step down. Ego-driven leadership has left the studio with a failed project. The employees who remain are demoralized. The ones who were fired are looking into their legal options.
Ambition is not a substitute for effective management. Vision matters, but so does good leadership. Build a Rocket Boy can recover. Only if Leslie Benzies acknowledges he doesn’t have what it takes to lead it.
