After more than ten years since its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 6 it will finally be released in the fall of 2026. Fans of the open-world crime game have been waiting a long time, but Rockstar Games likes to take its time. And that wait wasn't any easier with so few titles occupying the same space as GTA. Some tried, but no one came close.
Perhaps the biggest challenger Grand Theft Auto was the throne MindsEyea third-person action-adventure title from Build a Rocket Boy. Many Grand Theft Auto fans thought so for many different reasons MindsEye would have been a GTA competitor at the very least, but instead it was an absolute disaster of a release.
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The MindsEye/Grand Theft Auto the comparison starts at the top, with Leslie Benzies. Benzies was a producer on Grand Theft Auto series, starting with GTA 3 up to Grand Theft Auto 5. Given his pedigree, when Benzies launched Build a Rocket Boy and announced EverywhereMMO/gaming platform, it was expected that he was trying to one-up Grand Theft Auto. As part of Everywhere, players would experience different areas that captured the gameplay from racing to fighting, similar aspects that you can see in any Grand Theft Auto title. It would be mostly user-generated, but the potential was there. But first, Build a Rocket Boy needed to prove the concept, and MindsEye was born.
How more and more MindsEye was revealed, question marks began to appear. First, it was made clear that the game would not be open world, which admittedly was an assumption by fans, but given Benzies past work, it was a reasonable assumption. Then there he was distancing the game from any GTA connection in pre-launch interviews with Benzies. Finally, the lack of early reviews cast doubt on the game's quality. Copies of timely inspection are by no means a guarantee, but when no socket can access the game earlier, it is not a good sign.
MindsEye is, quite frankly, an unfinished game that the developers initially tried to save but eventually gave up on. Somewhere is the core of a compelling idea MindsEyeand everywhere but the developers either didn't have the resources to fulfill their ambitions or the ambitions were so great that it was impossible to do a single thing right.
What may have initially been a Grand Theft Auto The competitor was instead a colossal failure, made worse by reports from developers Build and Rocket Boy. In an open letter from the developers, there were claims of management issues, as well as layoffs at the studio after its release. The release experience of MindsEye was apparently so bad that IO Interactive doubts they will ever release another studio's game again. MindsEye sits firmly as one of the most disappointing games of 2025and that is unlikely Everywhere when will it see the light of day.
There were some excellent ones Grand Theft Auto competitors/clones/whatever you want to call them. Saints Row developed its own fan base, but the latest entry attempted to reboot the series by taking it in a direction that didn't seem to resonate with fans, and developer Volition was shut down a year later. The True crime the series also had its fair share of fans, but failed to gain traction after two entries (one in New York and one in LA).
Sleeping Dogs, Watchdogs, Godfather, Driver – there were quite a few games that tried to suck up even a small percentage of games Grand Theft Auto fan base. And while some have seen success, they haven't had the staying power of the Rockstar Games series. With Benzies at the helm, it looked like MindsEye could have been a more ambitious game than anything GTA has ever done, but instead those ambitions got the best of Build a Rocket Boy.
- Released
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November 2026
- ESRB
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Rating pending – probably over 17 years old
