While the gaming industry has seen its share of major flops recently, the implosion of Build a Rocket Boy’s MindsEye stands out as one of the most unusual. Beyond disappointing critics and fans, the most striking development came when studio executives revealed that the game’s catastrophic launch was partly due to ‘organized espionage and corporate sabotage’ from anonymous sources.
This situation was further compounded by a string of controversial decisions and statements from studio management, including calling developers ‘lazy and incompetent,’ while developers countered that the project was ‘doomed from the start.’ It was truly an epic collapse.
Now, as the game approaches its first anniversary, Mark Gerhard, CEO and CTO of Build a Rocket Boy, has addressed the title’s tumultuous past, making candid admissions while outlining a promising plan for the future.
“We are very excited about this next chapter,” Gerhard stated. “We know that we had, without a doubt, the worst launch in history. And obviously, there are many reasons for that, but we plan to re-launch our game now that the interference has stopped. The game is receiving very good reviews. Sales are growing organically, almost doubling every week.
“All of this is very positive. We love being able to control our own destiny as an independent studio. We want to be close to our players. We want to listen to the community and evolve their game organically.”
Regarding the element of espionage and sabotage, Gerhard also stated, “We were somewhat caught off guard on that front. We didn’t counter the negative narrative. We weren’t sophisticated enough to have done so. But, we are aware of it. We called it out. Some of the negativity was orchestrated around that, and fortunately, as a result, it has stopped.”
He further added that “we have obtained very strong evidence regarding this and conducted quite thorough investigations in the months following the launch. We have identified the parties involved, and it is now up to the UK and US authorities to deal with it. I can confirm that they are assisting us with this investigation, but it is also in their hands now. We will let them do what they do, make arrests or make announcements in due course. I think we will not say anything further at this point. We will let the natural course of justice take its path.”
Nevertheless, performance issues and bugs are not a consequence of this, and Gerhard stated that these were “on us” and that “this belongs to us as a leadership team and as a studio.”
The road ahead will be long for MindsEye, which has parted ways with its publisher IO Interactive and now faces the challenge of re-establishing good faith with a community it has already hurt. When the “relaunch” takes place, will you give MindsEye another chance?