Despite the rather visible failure of action adventure game MindsEye over the previous year, it looks like developer Build a Rocket Boy has still been investing in its marketing. As spotted by FRVR, videos about the game have been popping up on YouTube with descriptions noting that MindsEye had sponsored them. One such example was by Cricken2, who uploaded a video about taking on various driving challenges in MindsEye. The description included an affiliate link to the game’s main website, along with disclosure of it being sponsored content.
Comments on the YouTube video have noted this sponsorship, with one referring to MindsEye as being a “Morbius tier sponsor.” Another commenter expressed disbelief at this sponsorship being real, and brought up how out of place a similar sponsored video for cancelled live-service shooter Concord would have turned out.
Despite the studio’s continued spending on sponsored content for MindsEye, however, it doesn’t look like it has had a positive impact so far. A quick look at its player charts on Steamdb indicate that it is only getting a 24-hour peak of 22 concurrent players; a far cry from its all-time peak of 3,302 concurrent players from back when it first came out. The fall in player numbers came quickly, with it going down to 280 in just a week, before then sinking even deeper down to its current average. It is worth noting, however, that these numbers only represent PC players. As unlikely as it might seem, MindsEye might be doing better on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Interestingly, Build a Rocket Boy has continued to release updates for MindsEye since its release, with a major one coming out back in October that essentially removed open-world gameplay from the title. It was instead replaced with the return of ARCADIA—a way to experience player-generated content like missions and. It is essentially a way for the studio to meld its Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye features into a singular entity: Build.ARCADIA. Subsequent updates for MindsEye since then have brought in more featured ARCADIA content.
The development of MindsEye has been rocky. Back in October, former lead analyst at Build a Rocket Boy, Ben Newborn, accused the studio’s leadership of ignoring and laughing at issues with the game throughout its development. Former associate producer Margherita Peloso also brought up similar sentiments.
As for studio CEO Leslie Benzies, Newborn noted that he would often present the team with issues by simply playing builds of the game and pointing to things that needed changing or fixing. Referring to these demands as “Leslie tickets,” Newborn said, “It didn’t matter what else you were doing, what else was being worked on, the Leslie ticket had to be taken care of.”
Actor Alex Hernandez, who portrayed MindsEye protagonist Jacob Diaz, has also spoken about the negative reaction to the title, noting that he wasn’t sure if he would find work in the industry again.
“It’s a difficult thing to spend two-and-a-half years on a project that you’re really proud of and you’re proud of your contribution to it. And I only had positive experiences working on it. The people I was working with, I was proud for them, of them, I wanted it to be a success for them just as much for myself,” he said.
For more details about MindsEye, check out our review.
