Mindseye, the new game from ex-Rockstar president, is having a very weird launch

Video game launches are typically fairly rote endeavors. Outlets publish reviews when an embargo lifts, usually shortly before a game launches, and the public will use those reviews to inform its purchasing decisions. Occasionally, you’ll have a controversial launch, like how CD Projekt Red lost all its goodwill with the bug-filled mess of a launch that was Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2020.

The launch of Mindseye, however, isn’t controversial, or even highly anticipated. But it is straight up weird.

Let’s start with the basics: Mindseye is a third-person action-adventure game with a mix of shooting and driving as the foundation for its gameplay. According to the official Steam description, “You’ll play as Jacob as he fights to uncover his truth in a world where AI, hi-tech experimentation and unchecked military power shapes every encounter. What starts as a personal quest quickly becomes a mission that’s critical to all of humanity’s survival as sentient robots rise, propelled by human greed.” It’s described as a narrative-driven game, though that narrative sounds fairly generic and it lacks a unique hook (this ain’t no story about fighting a deity-like being who turns people to flower petals each year).

Despite that, many outlets and prospective players have kept an eye (heh) on Mindseye because of who is developing it. Mindseye is the debut game from Build a Rocket Boy, the studio formed by ex-Rockstar North leader Leslie Benzies. He was a producer on many of your favorite Grand Theft Auto titles, including 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5. Judging by the gameplay trailers, you can easily see the GTA influence on Mindseye.

Mindseye started as a game within Build a Rocket Boy’s Everywhere — think of it as a cross between an MMO and a Roblox-like platform — but grew to be a standalone release. Buzz steadily built since it was first teased in 2022, but things got weird in May 2025 as Mindseye neared launch.

Negative pre-release reception shared on X, including one fan calling Mindseye “a broken mess, filled with bugs,” prompted Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard to say anyone who was sharing negative feedback about Mindseye was “100 percent” being funded by an ubiquitous someone. On the game’s Discord, he said it’s “not wild when it’s true…..” and that it “doesn’t take much to guess who” would be behind a negative publicity campaigned targeted toward Mindseye and Build a Rocket Boy. Benzies was embroiled in a legal battle with Rockstar after he and the company parted ways, so one can guess Gerhard was likely referring to the GTA publisher.

If accusing someone of financing a smear campaign against your game weeks before its launch wasn’t weird enough, Build a Rocket Boy also lost executives one week before launch. Both chief legal officer Riley Graebner and CFO Paul Bland left the company before Mindseye made it to store shelves. As one member of the Mindseye Discord succinctly put it, “People don’t bail right before they think they’re releasing a hit usually” (via Eurogamer).

Despite the head-scratching press leading up to Mindseye, some of us here at Polygon still wanted to play it and find out for ourselves if it really deserves all this digital ink. However, in a sign something’s amiss, it doesn’t seem like any games media outlet, Polygon included, received a review code for Mindseye. Much like press not receiving Nintendo Switch 2 for review, this means you’ll be going into Mindseye blind if you decide to bite the bullet and pick it up day one.

And Xbox players nearly should have avoided Mindseye entirely on launch day. After saying its 16 GB day one patch with “gameplay improvements, visual polish, stability fixes, and performance tuning” wouldn’t be ready for Xbox Series X on launch day, Build A Rocket Boy confirmed to IGN the patch is now on its way for launch.

After a Summer Game Fest appearance last week, Mindseye releases into the wild June 10 for Windows PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5. Whether it’s worth playing is still a mystery, but for the curious who want to save themselves a clean $60, you can already watch the entire campaign on YouTube. Because for Mindseye, when it rains it pours, and it’s been pouring a lot.