Mark Gerhard, CEO and CTO of developer Build A Rocket Boy, has addressed its controversial shooter MindsEye‘s rough start last year, calling it “without doubt, the worst launch in history”. That’s as he says the studio plans to share “evidence” of the “sabotage” Build A Rocket bosses have repeatedly blamed for the game’s woes in a future multiplayer update.
Build A Rocket Boy was founded by former GTA producer Leslie Benzies in 2016, and its first game, Everywhere, was announced in 2022. Everywhere was envisaged as a user-generated content platform promising to redefine “how players connect with one another and the digital world around them”. But along the way, MindsEye – initially unveiled as a component of Everywhere – evolved into a standalone “AAA” game that eventually released last June.
Even before launch, CEO Mark Gerhard was dismissing MindsEye criticism, claiming “all the people who reacted negatively were financed by someone”, and that it didn’t “take much to guess who”. Complaints were much harder to brush off, however, when the game arrived, blighted by glitches and other issues that Build A Rocket Boy quickly acknowledged, saying it was “working around the clock to improve”. Just weeks later, the studio confirmed layoffs, and further layoffs were announced earlier this year, with Gerhard blaming MindsEye’s troubles on “organised espionage and corporate sabotage”.
And now, speaking to GamesBeat, Gerhard has discussed MindsEye’s rocky start – and its future away from original publisher IO Interactive – in more detail. “We’re very excited about this next chapter,” he said. “We know we had, without doubt, the worst launch in history. And obviously there’s many reasons for that, but we are planning to relaunch our game now that the interference has stopped.” Gerhard added MindsEye is now “being very well-reviewed” and that “sales are increasing organically, doubling almost weekly.”
Dismissing claims MindsEye was one of the world’s most refunded titles, Gerhard insisted refunds were “within the norms for many games” and that suggestions otherwise were “just a negative or malicious narrative that was amplified.” It’s a topic he returned to repeatedly during the interview with GamesBeat, arguing, “Some of the negativity has been orchestrated around this”, although he did concede launch issues were “on us”.
“[We’ve listened to] feedback and continue to invest in the game,” he added. “Without doubt, it gets better month on month or update after update. But without doubt, there was a concerted effort. Some people had their hands on the scale and deliberately tried to shape a negative narrative around the product so it didn’t get a fair chance. It didn’t get to find its community. It didn’t get a chance to be iterated on, as would be typical with these things.”
According to Gerhard, the studio has “very strong evidence” of interference and has “identified [the] parties involved”, with the matter now said to be with US and UK authorities. “It’s… in their hands now,” he continued. “We’ll leave them to do what they do, make their arrests or any announcements in due course. I think we’re not saying anything further at this stage on that. We’ll just let the natural course of justice take its path.”
Despite the issue now seemingly being the subject of an active investigation, Gerhard says the studio plans to use MindsEye’s forthcoming multiplayer update to “share some of the evidence of the sabotage” with the community. The update, which will supposedly introduce a new mission, Blacklist, and a new female playable character, doesn’t yet have a launch date. Beyond that, Gerhard says the team still hopes to release tools that’ll enable the MindsEye community to “make their own [content and] dream up their own creations… without being a studio or needing to program or anything.”
Eurogamer gave MindsEye’s launch version one out of five stars when it arrived last June, saying, “Although it shows some early promise, MindsEye is sunk by a ridiculous story, inconsistent writing, poorly designed mission scenarios, and utterly atrocious combat.” According to Gerhard, sales of the game since then have been “very modest.”
