The MindsEye saga just got stranger. Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO Leslie Benzies has confirmed that Blacklist, the game's first major update, will go beyond new content. Benzies intends to use the mission to "share some of the evidence of the sabotage with the community." That's not a figure of speech. The studio is literally building a spy mission around the people it accuses of tanking its own game.
How a rough launch turned into an espionage saga
MindsEye had one of the more painful debuts of 2025. The first major release from Build a Rocket Boy, helmed by former Rockstar Games producer Leslie Benzies, it launched to a reception that was, at best, underwhelming. The combat felt flat, the story failed to connect, and the game's debut trailer set to Mad World did more to telegraph its tone than anyone at the studio probably intended.
By July 2025, Benzies was publicly blaming saboteurs for the game's poor performance. The studio doubled down by March of this year, stating it had "overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage." Then, in February, Benzies floated the idea in what appeared to be an internal meeting: the studio would put the alleged saboteurs' names into an upcoming in-game mission.
That mission is Blacklist. And it is, apparently, real.
What Benzies is actually claiming now
Benzies laid out the studio's position with notable confidence in a recent interview. "We've got very strong evidence of this and conducted quite thorough investigations over the months since launch," he said. "We've identified parties involved, and it's now with the authorities both in the U.K. and U.S. to deal with."
He added that those authorities are "assisting" with the investigation, and that the studio intends to "let the natural course of justice take its path." That's a serious set of claims. Authorities in two countries, arrests potentially incoming, the whole thing.
And yet, the studio's response to all of this is also to build a DLC mission where the accused get named and effectively dunked on in a video game. Those two approaches sitting side by side are worth pausing on.
The publisher has already walked away
For context on where MindsEye stands right now, its original publisher IO Interactive has formally ended its deal with Build a Rocket Boy. A planned crossover with Hitman was cancelled. IO Interactive has also directly denied the sabotage claims, with the studio saying the game "should speak for itself." That's about as pointed a rebuttal as you'll get in a press release.
Build a Rocket Boy's own update announcement confirms the studio has moved to self-publishing and describes this period as "a new era" for MindsEye. Studio head Mark Gerhard called Update 7 "a big step forward" in a developer statement, and confirmed that additional content is in development.
The tension between legal action and in-game callouts
Here's the thing: if the evidence is as strong as Benzies claims, and if UK and US authorities are genuinely involved, the legal process will handle it. That's how it works. Naming alleged saboteurs in a video game mission before any of that plays out in court is a different kind of move entirely.
The Blacklist update puts Build a Rocket Boy in a position where it's simultaneously pursuing formal legal channels and using its own game as a public callout platform. Whether that reads as confidence or as something more reactive probably depends on what the investigation actually turns up.
What players can do right now is watch how the Blacklist content actually lands, both as a mission and as the studio's promised delivery of evidence. That will tell you more about where MindsEye goes from here than any press release. Make sure to check out more:
