Uncertainty continues to surround the game, but the studio head is holding out hope.
In 2024, Build a Rocket Boy (BARB) was known as the studio founded by former Rockstar producer Leslie Benzies. Thanks to $110 million in funding, BARB seemed poised to become the market’s next big indie studio. Today, however, they are known as the team behind MindsEye, which released one of the worst games of 2025 and experienced one of the worst launches in history. BARB co-chair Mark Gerhard believes the MindsEye launch was the worst in gaming history.
“We know we had the worst launch in history. Obviously, there are many reasons for that, but we are planning to relaunch our game now that the interference has stopped. The game is receiving excellent reviews. Sales are increasing organically, almost doubling weekly. As a leadership team and as a studio, we own that. In my career, I’ve worked on 72 games, and I can say that I’ve never worked on a completely bug-free game. It’s always a judgment call as to whether you’re proud of it or if it’s good enough. You work tirelessly to ensure there are no showstoppers. We were caught off guard on that, though. We didn’t counter the negative narrative. We weren’t sophisticated enough to do so, but we’re aware of that now. We’ve called that out. Thankfully, some of the negativity has stopped as a result,” Gerhard told GamesBeat in a new interview.
The interference that Gerhard is referring to is the corporate espionage that he had previously cited as the reason for the poor reception of MindsEye. It is neither the countless performance issues experienced at the game’s launch nor the dull story woven into the tedious gameplay. Gerhard acknowledges that some of the launch problems were their fault. However, he continues to insist that MindsEye and BARB were victims of a campaign aimed at undermining them, both from within the studio and by external forces. He claims that the studio gathered evidence of the alleged sabotage and that it is currently in the hands of the authorities. He adds that the next DLC for MindsEye will revolve around the sabotage targeting the studio, which we first heard about from BARB in February.
“We have very strong evidence of this, and we have conducted thorough investigations since the launch. We’ve identified the parties involved, and the matter is now in the hands of the authorities in the U.K. and the U.S. I can confirm that they are assisting us with the investigation, but it is also in their hands now. We’ll leave them to do their work and make their arrests or announcements in due time. I don’t think we’re saying anything further at this stage. We’ll just let the natural course of justice take its path. We’re also using this opportunity to share some evidence of sabotage with the community,” added Gerhard.
This is the first time Gerhard has spoken out since IO Interactive officially severed ties with the studio following the release of MindsEye. While it is technically possible that the evidence of alleged espionage could corroborate Gerhard’s claims, the simplest explanation for all of MindsEye and BARB’s problems is much easier to conclude than corporate espionage. We’ll see if the ongoing investigation yields any results.
