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Forbes
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘MindsEye' Launches With Few Players, Meme-Worthy Bugs
MindsEye If you weren't aware that a game called 'MindsEye' was dropping yesterday, you would not be alone. But the game quickly rose up the Twitch charts with a slew of both sponsored streams and those just checking out the game to see what all the buzz was about. Bad buzz, mind you. MindsEye is a GTA-styled third-person shooter that is more than just an attempted clone, given that Leslie Benzies was its director, former President of Rockstar North, and lead developer on GTA games from GTA III to GTA V. So even if this wasn't GTA itself, it could still be a cool conceptual offshoot, no? It's hard to describe this launch as anything other than a disaster. In the run-up to release, co-CEO of Mindseye's developer, Mark Gerhard, answered a Discord question where he said he 100%' believed that negative feedback was the result of people being paid to give it. 'Doesn't take much to guess who,' later doubling down that he believed this to be the case. Now that the game is here, however, the mess unfolded. Clips were widely shared about the game's goofy bugs and often poor performance, MindsEye quickly ascending into meme territory. Playercount is no better, with the game peaking at 3,300 concurrent players at launch and trendlines that indicate it may not surpass that. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Mindseye The $60-priced game currently has Mixed reviews that are 40% positive on Steam. MindsEye did not give out early review copies to critics so it doesn't have a metascore, and it's not a stretch to imagine why that might have been. Many are wondering why IO Interactive would stick their neck out to publish this. An initial concept of a key GTA figure working on a similarly-styled game may have been attractive, but once it was previewed, things unraveled pretty quickly, and now we've arrived at this underwhelming launch. At the moment, MindsEye feels like a game that will be in the discourse for maybe another 24 hours before the sands of time whisk it away, and no one ever thinks about it again. I will keep an eye on its concurrent playercount, but if it doesn't rise over this weekend, the writing is pretty much on the wall. I think you can make the argument that it already is. It's not clear what happened here from conception to execution, but perhaps that story will emerge someday. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Metro
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
MindsEye still has no reviews but plenty of bugs in 'disastrous' launch
One of the most important GTA developers has released a new third person action game, but its launch has been marred by performance issues and bugs. Launching a brand new IP at the same time as the Switch 2 launch and the not-E3 season of preview showcases was perhaps not the wisest choice for new third person action game MindsEye, but that's turned out to be only one problem amongst many for the troubled release. MindsEye, developed by Build A Rocket Boy, was released across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Tuesday, June 10, and as you may have noticed, we don't have a review up yet. In fact, no outlets have published reviews at the time of writing, presumably because everyone is in the same boat and hasn't received a review copy yet. Publishers aren't required to give codes to publications but, as has been the case in the past, it can often suggest that they're not entirely confident in the final product and want to avoid negative press. While we'll hold our full judgement for now, the game's launch hasn't exactly gone down well with those that have already bought it. On Steam, the game has a 'mixed' average rating based on over 800 reviews, with some players calling out performance issues and 'extremely restricting' system requirements. Many of these issues have been encapsulated in video clips on social media, which show stuttering problems, glitches where you fall through the floor, distorted faces, characters floating in the air, and crash bugs. 'They really should have delayed MindsEye,' one user on X wrote. 'Was playing it and all of a sudden it crashed. Then my save data got corrupted.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. 'MindsEye is a complete technical DISASTER,' another wrote. 'Avoid this game right now at ALL COSTS.' Following the game's launch, Build A Rocket Boy has promised to improve performance across all platforms. 'We understand that the current minimum spec requirements are very high, but our engineering team are working around the clock to improve performance on mainstream hardware as well as consoles by integrating the performance improvements in Unreal Engine V5.6,' a statement reads. 'We will provide patch 3 update timing, including these improvements, within the next 24 hours.' In the run up to launch, MindsEye has had a weird vibe around it. When negative previews began circulating online last month, Build A Rocket Boy's co-CEO Mark Gerhard claimed all the people who reacted negatively to the game were being financed by an unnamed 'someone'. In a response on Discord, Gerhard wrote: 'I just said that there is a concerted effort by some people that don't want to see Leslie [Benzies] or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful that are making a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio. It's pretty easy to see the bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out.' While he doesn't explicitly state who he is referring to, many have taken this to be a reference to Rockstar Games and/or Take-Two Interactive. Leslie Benzies, the co-founder of Build A Rocket Boy, was previously a lead developer on the GTA series and former president of Rockstar North. He left Rockstar in 2016 but, shortly afterwards, Benzies filed a lawsuit against the company claiming he was unlawfully dismissed and entitled to unpaid royalties. This case came to an end in February 2019 with an undisclosed settlement between Take-Two and Benzies. MindsEye is the studio's first game but Build A Rocket Boy previously announced a massively multiplayer online title called Everywhere, which has been compared to an adult version of Roblox. More Trending While MindsEye was originally going to be one experience within this wider Everywhere package, it has spun out into a separate entity with its own creation suite, called and However, as revealed in an interview with VGC, the developers have said Everywhere will be shown again at some point in the future. 'MindsEye is definitely the thing that people should be focusing on,' assistant game director, Adam Whiting, said. 'But we haven't forgotten about Everywhere, it will re-emerge.' It remains to be seen if MindsEye can overcome these initial launch issues, but for now, you can expect our full review in the coming weeks. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 officially breaks record for fastest-selling console ever MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 comparison: how do Switch 1 games play on the new console? MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 outsells Switch 1 launch by over 100% but fails to beat PS5
STV News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- STV News
Boom or Bust: Could this new Scottish video game be the next Grand Theft Auto?
A Scottish video game hailed by some as the next Grand Theft Auto is set for a release on Tuesday, but the build-up to its launch has been marred by controversy and lack of clarity. MindsEye is an ambitious big-budget single-player title developed by Edinburgh-based Build A Rocket Boy studio. Headed by a former GTA producer, Leslie Benzies, the studio's upcoming maiden title has created a buzz on both the local and international gaming scenes, in no small part due to the scope of ambition they have set out for their game. But recently the project has been attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. Last month, a group of journalists and content creators were given access to a limited preview of the game. Their reaction? Less than positive. Some of those given access to the preview went as far as to call on the developers to postpone the game and use the time to fix and polish it into a finished product. The overwhelmingly negative reaction has made the studio double down on confidence in their title, with Build A Rocket Boy's co-CEO, Mark Gerhard, claiming that people are being paid to 'trash the game' before it launches. 'There is a concerted effort by some people that don't want to see Leslie (Benzies) or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful that are making a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio,' Gerhard said. 'It's pretty easy to see the bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out.' If the negative reaction, be it genuine or paid for, was not enough for the studio to deal with, two executives have left it just a week before the game's release. As expected, the departure of their chief legal officer and chief financial officer did nothing to help alleviate the pressure piling up on the studio, with questions popping up about whether they would be leaving if they genuinely believed MindsEye is going to be successful. And while it's entirely possible their departure has nothing to do with the game's potential fortunes, it only adds wind to the rumour mill that has been with the project for a while. The lack of clarity seems to stem from a relative radio silence about the project from the get-go. Before AI became the new buzzword, everyone was talking about the metaverse. MindsEye was initially described as an 'experience' taking place within one such metaverse, the Everywhere platform that was supposed to rival the likes of Fortnite and Roblox. Apart from that, very little is known about it, with the platform seemingly falling off the radar while the studio focuses on MindsEye. However, one cannot say that here, Build A Rocket Boy have done a much better job explaining exactly what the game is really about. That leaves gamers wondering what it actually is that they may be buying come Tuesday. Build A Rocket Buy Players take on the role of a former soldier, Jacob Diaz. For the record, MindsEye is billed as a linear, narrative-driven, single-player third-person shooter set in a future where artificial intelligence and human greed bring Earth to the brink of collapse. From trailers, the game gives an impression of something between Grand Theft Auto V and Cyberpunk 2077, with players taking on the role of a former soldier, Jacob Diaz. For their part, the studio have never tried to position MindsEye as a GTA competitor, but instead aim to create a unique title, something that has not been seen before. Whether they have been successful in pitching that to the players is up for debate. In a recent interview for Leslie Benzies has opened up on their vision for MindsEye and beyond. One of the key takeaways from it is that the game should act as a gateway into a much larger 'epic universe'. For the next ten years, the studio plans to evolve the game through regular content updates, ranging from standalone ones, like races, with others serving the larger narrative. 'Once players have experienced the full ten-year arc, they'll understand the shape and scope of the MindsEye universe,' Benzies explained. User-generated content will also have a big role to play, with players being able to create their own levels, races and missions via tools called and and share them with others. Those tools were originally part of the aforementioned Everywhere project; what it means for the project itself is unclear, but Benzies insisted that all will become clear 'very soon'. What's not as clear is why the studio decided to wait until a few weeks before launch to reveal those, arguably crucial, details. Build A Rocket Buy MindsEye is billed as a linear, narrative-driven, single-player third-person shooter. Unclarity and controversy aside, there is every chance MindsEye will turn out to be a great game. Those in the industry believe the fact that the title attracted perhaps the most funding out of all the Scottish video game projects ever and the amount of talent working on the game should ensure a high level of quality. Should MindsEye not be in tip-top shape upon its release, Build A Rocket Buy can take slight comfort in the knowledge that other games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man's Sky, managed to move past 'disastrous' launches and turn their fortunes around. A success would undoubtedly mean another boost in prestige for the local video game industry, but should the game prove to be less impressive, those in the sector believe it's robust enough for its reputation not to be damaged. Players won't have to wait long to decide whether MindsEye is a boom or bust. The game releases on Tuesday, June 10, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. 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