Tuesday, February 10, 2026 – Build A Rocket Boy, the studio behind the game MindsEye which drew sharp criticism last year, has again been hit by controversy. Rockstar CEO and veteran Leslie Benzies is reportedly taking a temporary leave of absence amid a storm of accusations of internal sabotage and claims that his unrealistic design demands were to blame for the game’s failure.
Fast Facts
Table of Contents
- MindsEye CEO is currently on temporary leave from his position.
- Former employees accused the CEO of making design demands they deemed unrealistic.
- The company MindsEye implemented monitoring software to search for parties accused of sabotage.
- There is a view that it is impossible to create quality games under existing working conditions.
- The CEO of MindsEye has reportedly claimed to have found out who was suspected of sabotaging the game.
Controversy Behind the Scenes of MindsEye
News of the temporary leave of Benzies, who is now handing over the CEO seat to co-CEO Mark Gerhard, is just the tip of the iceberg of a series of problems that have plagued the studio. According to reports GamesIndustry.biz which compiled testimonials from Build A Rocket Boy representatives and employees, the company insisted that the launch MindsEye the bad is the result of “sabotage” from within.
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“We have evidence that there was a coordinated campaign to intentionally and maliciously damage Build A Rocket Boy’s reputation and undermine confidence in it MindsEye,” the studio said in a statement, adding that it is currently working with its legal team to resolve the issue.
Employee Monitoring with Teramind
As part of this “investigation,” Build A Rocket Boy suddenly deployed Teramind, employee activity monitoring software, on staff computers. Mureks pays attention to reports from GamesIndustry.biz which said that new management acknowledged the installation of Teramind and required employees to sign an updated IT privacy policy after the software was installed.
In a leaked internal video call, Gerhard reportedly stated that the majority of employees were fine, but “it’s the 1% that’s the problem,” referring to trust or privacy issues. Gerhard insists that Teramind is “directly linked to success MindsEye,” but hopes to remove it “within three months.”
Impossible Design Demands
On the other hand, claims emerge that MindsEye suffered from development problems that were exacerbated by the Benzies themselves. The developers, including former principal data analyst Ben Newbon, described the project as unpredictable and too feature-heavy.
“If management had concentrated on tidying things up at the time, it could have worked, but instead they kept trying to add extra things,” Newbon said of the conditions leading up to the launch.
An anonymous developer added, “We have so many fundamental changes to the game that it’s impossible to make a good game in the time we have.” Benzies is said to be so notorious for requesting feature changes, even “like a month before launch,” that it has its own private category in Jira, a planning tool used by game developers.
This phenomenon is exacerbated by the “entourage” of people who always agree with Benzies’ ideas. “They crushed their own talents under the yoke to please one man at the top,” said one staffer.
Another anonymous developer lamented, “He might have a winning formula if he listened to the advice of the hundreds of fantastic, incredibly talented, and hard-working industry professionals they spent so much time and money recruiting.”
The Future of MindsEye and Harsh Criticism
Build A Rocket Boy hopes MindsEye can experience such an awakening No Man’s Sky or Cyberpunk 2077. As of update 7 on February 4, 2026, the latest Steam user reviews for the game are 80% positive, although momentum seems small.
However, Newbon argues that No Man’s Sky And Cyberpunk 2077 has a good gaming foundation behind it, while MindsEye “still a very boring game” even without all the burdensome extra features. “Leadership is not listening,” he stressed. “Plus, they’ve fired more than half the studio. They don’t know how to run a business. They don’t know how to run a game studio.”
Game MindsEyewhich is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series GamesRadar+ as one of the worst games of 2025.
date:2026-02-09 20:39:00
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