20 January 2026

Bizarrely, MindsEye is Still Sponsoring Content Creators

By newsgame

Despite the fact that only about ten people play MindsEye every single day on Steam, developer Build A Rocket Boy is still paying content creators to play the game and upload YouTube videos on it. With former Rockstar Games president and Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies at the helm, MindsEye had huge expectations when it was first released, but failed to come anywhere near them following its launch in June of last year. Somehow, that hasn’t stopped the studio from paying people to play it.

While Build A Rocket Boy and publisher IOI didn’t provide creators or journalists with codes before launch, the reviews came in thick and fast after the game’s release on June 10, and they were not good. In fact, reviews were so negative that MindsEye became the worst-reviewed game of 2025 with a Metacritic score of 37 and a user score of 2.6. Critics bashed the performance issues and bugs, while also heavily criticizing its gameplay and story. GameSpot called MindsEye “mind-numbingly boring,” while Eurogamer said it has a “ridiculous story, inconsistent writing, poorly designed mission scenarios, and utterly atrocious combat.”

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Build A Rocket Boy Is Still Paying YouTubers to Play MindsEye

Build A Rocket Boy hasn’t given up hope, however, as the studio continues to release new updates for MindsEye regularly. The developers have made tons of fixes and adjustments over the last few months, which has even resulted in its recent Steam reviews over the last 30 days being “very positive.” However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that barely 10-15 people play the game on Steam each day, and yet the studio has still decided to sponsor YouTubers to play it. As spotted by FRVR, YouTuber Criken, who has over 1 million subscribers, recently live-streamed MindsEye last month and has now uploaded a new 10-minute YouTube video of the title.

If you’re thinking, “Maybe Criken just likes MindsEye and is playing it because he wants to,” you’re wrong. The description of the YouTuber’s video highlights that it is a paid sponsorship. “Head to your preferred gaming platform and search for MindsEye to start playing NOW,” reads the description, followed by #ad and #MindsEyePartner. Criken also thanks MindsEye at the end of the video for sponsoring the livestream.

There are multiple reasons as to why Build A Rocket Boy opting to pay streamers to play MindsEye is baffling, but the biggest one is that the studio laid off 250 developers recently, making it baffling from a financial standpoint. Some of these employees are also in the process of suing Build A Rocket Boy following the MindsEye disaster, as they claim their working conditions took a toll on their mental health and also accused the developer of mishandling their redundancy process. Build A Rocket Boy responded to these allegations by saying it was “deeply saddened” to have to make layoffs and that it “didn’t anticipate having to make redundancies” but that it “approached the process with care and transparency.” The studio also maintains that it met all of its obligations during the redundancy process, but is committed to learning and growing from it as it listens closely to feedback from former employees.

MindsEye‘s lead, Alex Hernandez, who many will remember from Mafia 3, even admitted that there was a “shared frustration” as a consumer and gamer, regarding the game’s disastrous launch. The actor, who portrayed Jacob Diaz in MindsEye, called for game studios to delay titles more frequently as more and more titles are being released in unfinished states. Hernandez did say he had a “blast” working on MindsEye, but said that the glitches and bugs can’t be forgiven just because it is Build A Rocket Boy’s first game. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if this is your first game or if it’s your hundredth game. If it’s glitchy, it’s glitchy. Glitches aren’t good. People don’t want glitches in their game,” he said.