MindsEye, the highly-anticipated third-person shooter directed by former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies, has crashed and burned so spectacularly that Sony has taken the rare step of automatically refunding PlayStation purchases. The game, released in late June 2024 by Build A Rocket Boy, was initially marketed as a flagship title during a PlayStation State of Play event with substantial marketing campaigns and streamer sponsorships.
Players who managed to boot up the $60 title found an essentially unplayable experience. Technical issues plague both PlayStation and PC versions, with console frame rates dipping below 30 FPS, frequent crashes, and a buffet of visual glitches. One reviewer described the performance as “like watching a slideshow through a pair of foggy glasses.”
The game’s problems extend far beyond technical hiccups. Players report disappointingly basic gameplay with minimal mechanics, lackluster enemy AI, and mission design that feels unfinished. The experience consists primarily of rudimentary shooting sections interrupted by excessive cutscenes, lacking features typically expected in modern action titles such as melee combat or varied interaction options.
“This feels like an early alpha build that accidentally got shipped as a full product,” noted one industry analyst. The barebones nature of the gameplay has fueled talk that MindsEye was hastily repurposed from a demo or proof-of-concept into a commercial release, possibly due to financial pressures.
Sony’s quick move to offer everyone a refund says a lot about the game’s quality. This is only the third time in five years that PlayStation has rolled out automatic refunds, following Cyberpunk 2077 and Concord, with some saying MindsEye saw the fastest refund rollout of all three. Players report the refund process is being handled directly through Sony support with no questions asked.
The situation feels especially shocking given Leslie Benzies’ background, who helped produce classics like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption while at Rockstar. After leaving Rockstar following a legal dispute, Benzies started Build A Rocket Boy with plans to make ambitious new games.
MindsEye was actually supposed to be a showcase for the studio’s upcoming platform Everywhere, which was billed as a “Roblox for adults,” but it ended up being sold alone as a full-priced game. With over 400 people working at the studio, the final result has people seriously questioning the studio’s leadership and priorities.
The launch issues got even weirder thanks to some strange PR choices, like Benzies publicly saying that bad early feedback came from “paid actors and astroturfing by competitors.” The studio also didn’t send review copies to media outlets, a move many gamers now immediately recognize as a bad sign.
No one’s shared any dates for patches or fixes, so the future of both MindsEye and the Everywhere platform is still up in the air. Some in the industry say this has likely put a dent in Build A Rocket Boy’s reputation and made players more skeptical of flashy promises, even from game developers with a proven track record.
