Back to news
MindsEye is set to launch next week, so it's probably not great that the studio's chief financial officer and chief legal officer have both resigned
@Source: pcgamer.com
Skip to main content
PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
Search PC Gamer
View Profile
Movies & TV
Gaming Industry
PC Gaming Show
Newsletter Signup
Community Guidelines
Affiliate Links
Meet the team
About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
Try a single issue or save on a subscription
Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From£35.99View
PC Gaming Show
SGF schedule
TES4: Oblivion
Elden Ring: Nightreign
Recommended reading
Third Person Shooter
MindsEye co-CEO claims there's a 'concerted effort' to trash the game ahead of its release: 'I do KNOW that there are bot farms posting negative comments and dislikes'
The new game from former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies is coming in June, and boy it sure looks like a Rockstar game
After suing a Disco Elysium writer to prevent him from making his own game, a tech CEO who's allegedly banned from the Disco Elysium subreddit is trying to crowdfund a spiritual successor
Third Person Shooter
MindsEye: All the key details on the new action game from one of the minds behind Grand Theft Auto
It's another day of Disco Elysium-related announcements trying to kneecap each other: Studio ZA/UM has put out a teaser for its first new game since 2019, and it's not Disco Elysium 2
Gaming Industry
Space Marine 2 CEO puts the boot into the Saints Row team's twitching corpse from his private jet: 'Who's going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?'
Gaming Industry
DayZ creator says Unity is accusing his studio of violating its software license based on the email addresses of two people who never worked there: 'This raises some serious questions about how Unity is scraping this data'
Gaming Industry
MindsEye is set to launch next week, so it's probably not great that the studio's chief financial officer and chief legal officer have both resigned
Andy Chalk
3 June 2025
The MindsEye saga gets weirder.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Build a Rocket Boy)
The pre-release saga of MindsEye, the debut game from former Rockstar Games stalwart Leslie Benzies and his Build a Rocket Boy studio, has taken another strange twist. As noticed today by Eurogamer, Build a Rocket Boy's chief financial officer and chief legal officer have both left the company, just a week ahead of MindsEye's release.
Former chief legal officer Riley Graebner, who joined Build a Rocket Boy in 2022 and also served as chief operating officer until April 2024, announced his departure from the studio in a message posted to LinkedIn.
"After three and a half years my time at BARB has come to a close," Graebner wrote. "I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. During that time we more than doubled the size of the company to over 450 employees. We launched multiple products worldwide. We built the legal team and legal ops infrastructure from the ground up, working to systemize and automate.
You may like
MindsEye co-CEO claims there's a 'concerted effort' to trash the game ahead of its release: 'I do KNOW that there are bot farms posting negative comments and dislikes'
The new game from former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies is coming in June, and boy it sure looks like a Rockstar game
After suing a Disco Elysium writer to prevent him from making his own game, a tech CEO who's allegedly banned from the Disco Elysium subreddit is trying to crowdfund a spiritual successor
"I’m beyond excited for what’s next—but currently operating in stealth mode for a while longer. Stay tuned."
CFO Paul Bland didn't make any sort of public declaration about leaving BARB, but updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate that he'd parted ways with the company in June. Somewhat oddly, he seems to have subsequently changed his LinkedIn page: The Paul Bland page on the site (which I successfully visited earlier today) is gone, but the account itself remains available, at a different URL, under the name Paul B. I have no idea what to make of that, but it's weird.
The whole thing is weird, really. Executives come and go, it's true, but losing two C-suiters, effectively at the same time, and literally a week before the launch of the big thing you've been working on for years—well, it's not a very good look, is it?
There's no indication that anything untoward is going on behind the scenes, but even so their departures have caused an understandable ripple amongst some of the MindsEye community. As one person put it in the MindsEye Discord, "Two major players inside the company just resigned. That's concerning!" I'm inclined to agree.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
Similar sentiments can be seen on the MindsEye subreddit, where people are already somewhat less than enthusiastic about the game due primarily to a relative dearth of information about it. Back when the metaverse was still a thing, MindsEye was billed as an experience taking place within the Everywhere platform, which has been kicking around—equally ill-explained—since 2016. But I know even less about Everywhere than I do about MindsEye at this point, and it seems to have fallen off the radar: The Everywhere website, for instance, now redirects to a MindsEye site—which is just a trailer and purchase links.
"They’ve done such an incredibly poor job explaining this game I still have no clue what it even is," redditor Greatnes wrote. "It’s just buzzwords and features with nothing linking them or explaining them. I’ve never had this issue with a game before with not even knowing what it is. Game is out in 13 days and they don’t seem interested in actually showing it off beyond carefully scripted gameplay trailers that don’t explain anything."
(MindsEye is, for the record, "a narrative driven, single-player action-adventure thriller" with an estimated 15-hour campaign—it looks a bit like GTA, but don't expect anything on that scale.)
The departures of Build a Rocket Boy's CFO and CLO come less than a week after the company's co-CEO Mark Gerhard caused a stir by claiming publicly that the negative reactions to MindsEye were part of a "concerted effort to trash the game and the studio" ahead of its release, being financed by an unnamed entity. That was not great either, and also very weird.
MindsEye is set to launch on June 10. I've reached out to Build a Rocket Boy for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
2025 games: This year's upcoming releases
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together
Social Links Navigation
US News Lead
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
MindsEye co-CEO claims there's a 'concerted effort' to trash the game ahead of its release: 'I do KNOW that there are bot farms posting negative comments and dislikes'
The new game from former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies is coming in June, and boy it sure looks like a Rockstar game
After suing a Disco Elysium writer to prevent him from making his own game, a tech CEO who's allegedly banned from the Disco Elysium subreddit is trying to crowdfund a spiritual successor
MindsEye: All the key details on the new action game from one of the minds behind Grand Theft Auto
It's another day of Disco Elysium-related announcements trying to kneecap each other: Studio ZA/UM has put out a teaser for its first new game since 2019, and it's not Disco Elysium 2
Space Marine 2 CEO puts the boot into the Saints Row team's twitching corpse from his private jet: 'Who's going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?'
Latest in Gaming Industry
Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios cuts 'senior management positions' because after all the other layoffs, 'the company had a lot of senior management in relation to our current size'
RuneScape studio Jagex confirms layoffs 'to reduce complexity, increase agility, and ensure we are fully focused on the areas that matter most'
How to watch the PC Gaming Show 2025
A glorious day: Microsoft finally gives up pestering EU users about Edge
Torchlight 3 studio Echtra Games, acquired by Zynga in 2021 to help it move into PC and console gaming, is being closed without doing that
Former Ubisoft execs face trial in France this week on charges of 'moral and sexual harassment'
Latest in News
Old School Runescape private server development is paused 'indefinitely' as Jagex says it has more important things to work on
Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios cuts 'senior management positions' because after all the other layoffs, 'the company had a lot of senior management in relation to our current size'
Here's when Dune: Awakening pre-loads and unlocks in your time zone
RuneScape studio Jagex confirms layoffs 'to reduce complexity, increase agility, and ensure we are fully focused on the areas that matter most'
This Russian fishing sim is bizarrely popular on Steam but players hate the monetisation, and to be fair it has a $2000 microtransaction
This Final Fantasy Tactics-like RPG from former Octopath and Destiny devs lets you do the best thing a videogame can: Make a town look cooler while you rebuild it
HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES
LATEST GAME REVIEWS
Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop
Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most
Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands
Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested
Asus ROG Pelta review
SteelSeries Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless review
Phanteks Eclipse G400A review
To A T review
Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 review
PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
Contact Future's experts
Terms and conditions
Privacy policy
Cookies policy
Advertise with us
Accessibility Statement
Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury,
BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.
Please login or signup to comment
Please wait...
Related News
11 Apr, 2025
‘A few beers’: Truth behind wild Smith o . . .
28 Apr, 2025
Here's the biggest news you missed this . . .
24 Mar, 2025
Emma Raducanu backs controversial tourna . . .
02 Jun, 2025
Australia faces 'best team in Asia' Japa . . .
10 Mar, 2025
Whippet called Miuccia crowned best in s . . .
02 Mar, 2025
Former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Retur . . .
05 May, 2025
Scottie Scheffler's Statement on Coming . . .
26 Apr, 2025
Ed Martin Isn’t Coming Clean About His T . . .