Online game launches are sometimes pretty rote endeavors. Shops publish evaluations when an embargo lifts, normally shortly earlier than a sport launches, and the general public will use these evaluations to tell its buying selections. Often, you’ll have a controversial launch, like how CD Projekt Pink misplaced all its goodwill with the bug-filled mess of a launch that was Cyberpunk 2077 again in 2020.
The launch of Mindseye, nonetheless, isn’t controversial, and even extremely anticipated. However it’s straight up bizarre.
Let’s begin with the fundamentals: Mindseye is a third-person action-adventure sport with a mixture of taking pictures and driving as the inspiration for its gameplay. In keeping with the official Steam description, “You’ll play as Jacob as he fights to uncover his fact in a world the place AI, hi-tech experimentation and unchecked navy energy shapes each encounter. What begins as a private quest shortly turns into a mission that’s important to all of humanity’s survival as sentient robots rise, propelled by human greed.” It’s described as a narrative-driven sport, although that narrative sounds pretty generic and it lacks a novel hook (this ain’t no story about combating a deity-like being who turns folks to flower petals every year).
Regardless of that, many shops and potential gamers have saved an eye (heh) on Mindseye due to who’s creating it. Mindseye is the debut sport from Construct a Rocket Boy, the studio fashioned by ex-Rockstar North chief Leslie Benzies. He was a producer on lots of your favourite Grand Theft Auto titles, together with 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5. Judging by the gameplay trailers, you may simply see the GTA affect on Mindseye.
Mindseye began as a sport inside Construct a Rocket Boy’s In all places — consider it as a cross between an MMO and a Roblox-like platform — however grew to be a standalone launch. Buzz steadily constructed because it was first teased in 2022, however issues acquired bizarre in Might 2025 as Mindseye neared launch.
Unfavorable pre-release reception shared on X, together with one fan calling Mindseye “a damaged mess, crammed with bugs,” prompted Construct a Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard to say anybody who was sharing damaging suggestions about Mindseye was “one hundred pc” being funded by an ubiquitous somebody. On the sport’s Discord, he stated it’s “not wild when it’s true…..” and that it “doesn’t take a lot to guess who” could be behind a damaging publicity campaigned focused towards Mindseye and Construct a Rocket Boy. Benzies was embroiled in a authorized battle with Rockstar after he and the corporate parted methods, so one can guess Gerhard was seemingly referring to the GTA writer.
If accusing somebody of financing a smear marketing campaign in opposition to your sport weeks earlier than its launch wasn’t bizarre sufficient, Construct a Rocket Boy additionally misplaced executives one week earlier than launch. Each chief authorized officer Riley Graebner and CFO Paul Bland left the corporate earlier than Mindseye made it to retailer cabinets. As one member of the Mindseye Discord succinctly put it, “Folks don’t bail proper earlier than they assume they’re releasing a success normally” (by way of Eurogamer).
Regardless of the head-scratching press main as much as Mindseye, a few of us right here at epicgamejourney nonetheless needed to play it and discover out for ourselves if it actually deserves all this digital ink. Nonetheless, in an indication one thing’s amiss, it doesn’t look like any video games media outlet, epicgamejourney included, acquired a evaluate code for Mindseye. Very like press not receiving Nintendo Change 2 for evaluate, this implies you’ll be going into Mindseye blind if you happen to resolve to chew the bullet and decide it up day one.
And Xbox gamers practically ought to have prevented Mindseye fully on launch day. After saying its 16 GB day one patch with “gameplay enhancements, visible polish, stability fixes, and efficiency tuning” wouldn’t be prepared for Xbox Sequence X on launch day, Construct A Rocket Boy confirmed to IGN the patch is now on its means for launch.
After a Summer season Recreation Fest look final week, Mindseye releases into the wild June 10 for Home windows PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5. Whether or not it’s price enjoying remains to be a thriller, however for the curious who need to save themselves a clear $60, you may already watch your complete marketing campaign on YouTube. As a result of for Mindseye, when it rains it pours, and it’s been pouring lots.
