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Build A Rocket Boy Installs Staff Monitoring as Benzies Takes Leave in MindsEye Crisis

Competing claims over sabotage versus mismanagement now define the studio’s explanation for MindsEye’s flop.

Overview

  • Reports say the studio secretly deployed Teramind on employee PCs, with staff only told after noticing slowed machines and being asked to sign a new IT policy.
  • Co-CEO Mark Gerhard told employees he trusts 99.9% of the workforce and hopes to remove the monitoring within three months, a target he linked to the game’s performance.
  • Build A Rocket Boy maintains it has evidence of a coordinated effort to damage the company and MindsEye’s reputation and says it is working with legal counsel.
  • Co-founder Leslie Benzies is on temporary leave, with Gerhard assuming day-to-day leadership during an ongoing internal investigation and public dispute.
  • Former developers, including ex–lead data analyst Ben Newbon, say late feature demands and repeated fundamental changes—often tied to Benzies—made a solid launch impossible, following a release panned on Metacritic and followed by layoffs; recent Update 7 yielded a modest uptick in positive Steam user reviews.