Oddly enough, MindsEye still sponsors content creators

Even though only about ten people play MindsEye every day on Steam, developer Build A Rocket Boy still pays content creators to play the game and upload YouTube videos to 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 close to them after its launch last June. 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 pre-launch codes, the reviews came in thick and fast after the game's release on June 10, and they weren't good. In fact, the 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 slammed the performance issues and bugs, while heavily criticizing the gameplay and story. GameSpot is called MindsEye “dizzyingly boring”, while Eurogamer said it has a “Ridiculous story, inconsistent writing, poorly designed mission scenarios, and utterly abominable combat.”

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Build A Rocket Boy is still paying YouTubers to play MindsEye

However, Build A Rocket Boy has not given up hope, as the studio continues to release new updates for MindsEye regularly. The developers have been making tons of fixes and tweaks over the past few months, even resulting in their most recent Steam reviews in the last 30 days being “very positive.” However, that doesn't take away the fact that barely 10-15 people play the game on Steam every day, and yet the studio still decided to sponsor YouTubers to play it. As discovered 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 titled.

If you're thinking, “Maybe Criken just likes MindsEye and plays it because he wants to,” you're wrong. The description of the YouTuber's video highlights that it's a paid sponsorship. “Go 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 to sponsor the live stream.

There are several reasons why Build A Rocket Boy chooses to pay streamers to play MindsEye is puzzling, but the biggest one is that the studio laid off 250 developers recently, which makes it puzzling from a financial standpoint. Some of these employees are also in the process of suing Build A Rocket Boy MindsEye disaster, as they claim their working conditions took a toll on their mental health and also accused the developer of mismanaging their termination process. Build A Rocket Boy responded to these allegations by saying that it was “deeply saddened” to have to make layoffs and that it “did not anticipate having to make layoffs” but that it was “approaching the process with care and openness.” The studio also maintains that it met all of its obligations during the termination process, but is committed to learning and growing from it as it listens closely to feedback from former employees.

MindsEyemanager, Alex Hernandez, who many will remember from Mafia 3even admitted there was a “shared frustration” as a consumer and player, regarding the game's disastrous launch. The actor, who portrayed Jacob Diaz in MindsEyeurged game studios to delay titles more often as more and more titles are released in unfinished states. Hernandez said he had a “blast” working on it MindsEyebut said that the errors and bugs cannot be forgiven just because it's 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 are not good. People don't want glitches in their game,” he said.