What the heck happened to Build A Rocket Boy’s MindsEye? It’s a complicated question. You may wonder how something led by an ex-Grand Theft Auto producer, whose last project is still one of the most successful games of all time, could turn out like this.
Since launching on Steam to “Mostly Negative” user reviews, which have only barely reached “Mixed” status (only 40 percent of the 1,336 reviews gave it a thumbs-up), it’s seen refunds on the PlayStation Store due to its poor technical state on PS5. Sponsored streamers faced numerous crashing problems – which is probably why Build A Rocket Boy took the obvious next step and cancelled other sponsored streams. Yes, even if it looks bad to do so at the very last second, it’s better than showing more and more people just how terrible the technical state is.
In its latest Reddit update, the development team said it’s “heartbroken that not every player was able to experience the game as we intended.” It’s currently focusing on “optimizing performance and stability” across every platform. The first hotfix will be released this week, followed by another next week, and Update 3 by the end of this month. However, there’s no denying that the studio’s reputation is effectively shot, and MindsEye is an utter joke. And really, it’s hard to feel too sympathetic.
No pre-release review copies were sent out. Whether the studio knew how bad things were beforehand or not (if you really want to give them the benefit of the doubt), it still acted to prevent any potential negative press before release. Which is hilarious in retrospect, but it even went on to streams for those who received the game early to stop them from doing so before launch. Fewer than a handful of critical reviews are available, but the user score on Metacritic – a whopping 3.0 out of 255 ratings – says it all.
So when someone asks, “What went wrong with MindsEye?” I can only respond, “Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?”
When the first cinematic trailer dropped, the fidelity of the cutscenes looked genuinely impressive. Of course, this was accompanied by the first “gameplay” trailer – a one-minute-long showcase of driving, shooting, driving while shooting, and my favorite, shooting at absolutely nothing (oh, also, explosions). It looked so bland, unenthusiastic and tedious that I genuinely forgot it existed. And so did the development team apparently, because it didn’t show any extensive gameplay, much less a mission walkthrough, until late May – roughly two weeks before launch.
Then again, it’s been hyping things even before sharing a single shred of details. In October 2024, studio head Leslie Benzies called it a “triple-A premium game and ever-evolving universe” with “best-in-class cinematics, high-octane driving, and explosive combat.” At the very least, he was right about all the explosions in combat.
After announcing a release date, the studio provided several memorable quotes that surely wouldn’t come back to bite them. A “meaningful, well-paced story respectful of your time as well!” A driving camera that makes you feel like “you’re on the edge of control, almost like you’re in a Fast & Furious film!” Of course, disdain was quickly building at the time, as many comments on the various lore trailers demanded proper gameplay. This occurred even after the developer’s short gameplay teasers, which have since been mysteriously unlisted.
Amid all this – and the reveal of the absurd PC requirements – co-CEO Mark Gerhard said on Discord that there was “a concerted effort by some people” to “trash the game and the studio.” It was apparently easy to see with “bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out,” per Gerhard. Nothing about actual valid criticism against the title and its marketing, though, sadly enough.
Of course, there were other questions. What happened to Everywhere, Build A Rocket Boy’s first title announced in 2017? It recently announced that MindsEye would include the same Arcadia Creation Suite, which added to the confusion. Then the infamous interview with Benzies dropped, where he talked about the 20ish hours it takes to complete and how you can’t have “filler content” since people “want the meat and the potatoes.”
Believe it or not, that’s the most level-headed part since he would go on to discuss the “overarching ten-year plan” for MindsEye and how it’s currently in the middle. Players would go back 10,000 years and then “forward a certain amount of time,” partake in an open-world multiplayer sequel set one year later, and in a free-roam title that would link the two together. Oh, and also, Everywhere will eventually reappear and “be a part of the same product” while fitting into the story “somewhere.” But that would be a spoiler, so mum’s the word, just like with any hope of extensive gameplay months before launch.
Around two days later, the company’s chief financial officer and chief legal officer would depart. No reasons were provided, but it created even more concern due to occurring less than a week before the big release.
If you visit the official YouTube channel, you’ll find a dev diary called, “MindsEye – Quality Assurance With Leslie Benzies.” In it, he sits down with other team members, playing through the game in the company’s lounge, and commenting on various bugs to fix. I joked about how it’s no wonder the optimization is in the gutter – they only had one person doing QA. However, it’s fascinating to see some of the comments. “If this is how much effort is going into quality assurance… I can’t imagine the level of detail packed into the actual gameplay. Can’t wait,” said one.
Even if this couldn’t possibly be a real person, the goal was to create this perception that the founder and president of the studio cares so much about this game, that he’s constantly playing through it, trying to ensure its quality. That’s the level of dedication to quality from this studio.
Several days after the launch debacle, Benzies has yet to issue any statement. Then there’s IO Interactive. When announcing its role as publisher, it promised to help with localization, distribution, marketing, game support, and even QA. While there are plenty of questions regarding Build A Rocket Boy and its quality assurance, you have to wonder: Did IO Interactive know about the state of the game? Was it willfully obfuscating it, or just seeing the builds provided by Benzies and Co., and believing everything was fine? How deep was its involvement in quality assurance? If it was significant, then how did the game still turn out in such a terrible state?
We could theorize endlessly about where things went wrong for MindsEye. Its origin as a game within Everywhere; the studio being in way over its head in developing a content platform that could compete with Fortnite (even if it never used that exact comparison, the parallels are obvious); the entire vision for MindsEye, which is an action-adventure game but also a faux open world that players will hopefully fill up over time with their own content; the focus on glitz and cutscenes over, well, a functioning and enjoyable video game; and, my favorite, the ten-year plan. Because that worked out so well with bigger companies that had far more resources at their disposal.
Instead, I prefer to look at it as a multifaceted lesson. Not every big name, regardless of their reputation, will release a quality game, especially without the same infrastructure and award-winning development team behind them. In the same vein, even with talented developers, not every big name is capable of executing their so-called vision. And regardless of how good the cutscenes and graphics look, there’s no substitute for good gameplay.