MindsEye was Leslie Benzies' grand return after GTA. One year later, the disaster is bigger than the game

MindsEye needed only a few days to fall from major promise to disaster

Any game Leslie Benzies made after leaving Rockstar was going to be measured against GTA. He had led Rockstar North and produced the series from GTA III through GTA V. His new studio, Build A Rocket Boy, promised an entire connected universe built around Everywhere, with MindsEye as the first serious test of that ambition.

It launched on 10 June 2025 and the comparison did not last long. Performance problems, bugs, erratic AI, bland combat and an open world that felt largely decorative took over the conversation. The PS5 version still sits at 29 on Metacritic, while the PC average is 39. Some PlayStation buyers reported receiving refunds over technical issues, although Sony never introduced a blanket policy comparable to Cyberpunk 2077.

A year of patches has improved the game. Recent Steam reviews are now “Mostly Positive,” with 70% approval over the past 30 days. Its English-language lifetime rating remains “Mixed,” at 53% across 1,520 reviews. Some players can now see an entertaining campaign beneath the launch wreckage. The trouble is that the story surrounding MindsEye has become far bigger than MindsEye itself.

Free Roam took a short break in October and never came back

Update 5 did something unusual: it removed a feature. In patch notes published on 30 October 2025, Build A Rocket Boy said Free Roam was taking “a short break” and would return soon. The mode let players explore Redrock outside the campaign, though its original version offered little beyond one character, one vehicle and an almost empty city.

Nearly nine months later, the studio has shipped updates 6, 6.1, 7, 7.1 and 7.2. It has added races, ARCADIA missions, AI changes and a free campaign called Blacklisted. Free Roam is absent from all of them. The latest official update, published on 6 May, fixed mission blockers, audio problems, floating containers and other Blacklisted bugs.

MindsEye still promises an “endless stream” of new content on Steam. One of its most recognisable features has now been missing for most of the year, and none of those patches explains when its supposedly short break will end.

IO Interactive left, taking the Hitman crossover with it

IO Interactive chose MindsEye to launch IOI Partners, its label for games made by external studios. The deal included a Hitman crossover planned for after release. In March 2026, the companies ended the partnership: Build A Rocket Boy took over publishing and the Hitman content was canceled.

The studio repurposed part of its plans as Blacklisted, a mission starring an assassin called Julia Black. Its story revolves around espionage, sabotage and a campaign to destroy a company from within. Players quickly noticed how closely that resembled claims made by the studio's own executives.

Co-CEO Mark Gerhard says the company has gathered “overwhelming evidence” of organized espionage and corporate sabotage against MindsEye. He says the case is moving toward prosecution and that the evidence cannot yet be shared. The studio has not released material that would let the public assess those claims.

Workers have gone to court too — against the studio

As management hunts for alleged saboteurs, workers have launched legal action of their own. The IWGB union says Build A Rocket Boy installed Teramind on work devices without telling employees. According to the union, the software could log keystrokes, capture screens and record microphone audio.

More than 40 workers filed a collective grievance. The company removed the software in March but did not answer their questions about what data was collected, where it was stored or how it was used. Employees escalated the matter through ACAS and the UK's data protection regulator. These remain allegations, with no final ruling that Build A Rocket Boy broke the law.

IWGB is pursuing a separate case over the handling of roughly 300 redundancies in 2025, alleging failures including a lack of collective consultation and unlawful blacklisting. Another round followed in May: reports put the number affected at about 170 from a remaining workforce of around 250. Build A Rocket Boy did not publicly confirm that figure.

On 11 July, former workers and supporters protested outside the Edinburgh office. Inside, the studio was holding a community playtest for fans whose flights and hotels it had paid for. For people who had just lost their jobs — including QA and community staff — watching players enter the building to test content was hard to swallow.

Fixing MindsEye is no longer enough to fix Build A Rocket Boy

The game remains on sale, its recent reviews are improving and it may yet become a decent experience. That would be a modest comeback for the much smaller team still patching it, and proof that Redrock had something worth saving underneath the bugs.

The studio's central problem no longer fits in patch notes. Hundreds of jobs are gone. Workers are pursuing two legal cases. The publisher walked away, a crossover was canceled and an entire mode disappeared without a return date. Through it all, management continues to blame a sabotage campaign the public has not seen evidence for.

Benzies founded Build A Rocket Boy to make something larger than a single game. One year after MindsEye, the studio is fighting to prove it can sustain the game it already released. Follow our reporting on studios, workers and the business behind games in the industry and creators hub.