It's bizarre that MindsEye still sponsors content creators

Despite the fact that only about ten people play MindsEye every day on Steam, Build A Rocket Boy developer still pays content creators to play the game and upload videos to YouTube. With the former president of Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies at the helm, MindsEye it had high expectations when it was first launched, but it didn't come close to them after launching in June of last year. Somehow that didn't stop the studio from paying people to play.

While Build A Rocket Boy and publisher IOI didn't provide pre-launch codes to developers or journalists, the reviews came in very quickly after the game's June 10th release, and they weren't good. In fact, the reviews were so negative that MindsEye became the worst rated game of 2025 with a Metacritic score of 37 and a user score of 2.6. Critics lambasted performance issues and bugs while also heavily criticizing its gameplay and story. GameSpot called MindsEye “insensitively boring”, while Eurogamer said it had “ridiculous story, inconsistent writing, poorly designed mission scenarios, and absolutely atrocious combat.”

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Build A Rocket Boy still pays 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 a lot of fixes and adjustments over the past few months, even leading to their recent reviews on Steam in the last 30 days being “very positive”. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that barely 10-15 people play the game on Steam every day, and yet the studio decided to let YouTubers play it. As spotted by FRVR, YouTuber Criken, who has over 1 million subscribers, recently went live MindsEye last month and has now uploaded a new 10-minute video of the title to YouTube.

If you think, “Maybe he likes Criken MindsEye and he plays it because he wants to,” you're wrong. The YouTuber's video description highlights that this is a paid sponsorship. “Head to your preferred gaming platform and search for MindsEye to start playing NOW,” reads the caption, followed by #ad and #MindsEyePartner. Criken also thanks MindsEye at the end of the video for sponsoring the live stream.

There are several reasons why Build A Rocket Boy decided to pay streamers to play MindsEye is confusing, but the biggest one is that the studio recently laid off 250 developers, which is confusing financially. Some of these employees are also in the process of suing Build A Rocket Boy after MindsEye disaster as they claim their working conditions took a toll on their mental health and also accused the developers of mishandling their redundancy process. Build A Rocket Boy responded to the allegations by stating that he was “deeply saddened” by having to make the layoffs and that he “did not anticipate having to make layoffs” but that he “approached the process with care and transparency.” The studio also says it has met all of its commitments during the layoff process, but is committed to learning and growing as it listens carefully to feedback from former employees.

MindsEyeAlex Hernandez, who many remember Mafia 3he even admitted that there was “shared frustration” as consumers and players when it came to the game's disastrous launch. The actor who played Jacob Diaz in the movie MindsEyecalled for game studios to shelve titles more often as more and more titles are released in unfinished states. Hernandez said he had a “blast” working on him. MindsEyebut he said that glitches and bugs can't be forgiven just because it's the first Build A Rocket Boy game. “I don't care who you are. I don't care if it's your first game or if it's your old game. If it's glitchy, it's glitchy. Glitches are not good. People don't want bugs in their game,” he said.