An action game wanted to become the new GTA in 2025, but failed miserably. Sabotage is said to be the cause, but the culprits have now been caught.
What kind of game is it? In June 2025, the developer studio “Build a Rocket Boy” released its first game: MindsEye. Players take on the role of former soldier Jacob Diaz, who bears a mysterious neural implant in his head and confronts political corruption and corporate espionage.
MindsEye is a story-driven action game that follows in the footsteps of games like GTA: There’s a sunny big city, fast cars, third-person shooting, a cover mechanic, and of course wild chases with plenty of explosions.
Studio claims external forces are to blame
This is what lies behind the developers’ sabotage theory: Even before the release of MindsEye, Mark Gerhard, the Deputy CEO of “Build a Rocket Boy,” stated that he was 100% sure, that players are being funded by someone to negatively react to the game on social media.
Now, Insider Gaming reportedly has a recording of an internal meeting of the studio in which Gerhardt claims they have caught “the guys” who sabotaged MindsEye as part of a million-dollar campaign.
According to Gerhardt, a “very large American company” is behind this campaign and collaborated with an influencer agency to damage the reputation of Build a Rocket Boy and MindsEye.
Furthermore, the Deputy CEO of the studio allegedly stated in the meeting that criminal charges for “espionage, sabotage, and criminal interference” would be filed against those involved.
How badly did the release of MindsEye perform? Despite the similarity to GTA the release of MindsEye resembled more of Cyberpunk 2077 than the action game from Rockstar Games.
The game suffered from severe performance issues. One point of criticism from players was also the empty open world and the gameplay described as boring. Additionally, there was a mission discussed in which a chase always went the same way – even if players themselves did not press any keys.
The players’ criticism was reflected in the player counts and user ratings on Steam – even today, they are only 42% positive. At peak, MindsEye had only 3,300 players simultaneously (via SteamDB).
The harsh criticism of the game also took its toll on Alex Hernandez, the actor of the protagonist Jacob Diaz. He said he might never work on a game again and knows that his name and face are now associated with something that “many people find quite terrible.” Read more about it here: An actor becomes the face of a game on Steam, now he worries about his future
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