{"id":1314073,"date":"2026-04-19T12:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zruV6JHhrCeXLj9JHDAQVL"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:09:47","slug":"somehow-mindseye-is-not-dead-a-new-update-promises-to-improve-performance-by-removing-ambient-rubbish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/somehow-mindseye-is-not-dead-a-new-update-promises-to-improve-performance-by-removing-ambient-rubbish\/","title":{"rendered":"Somehow, MindsEye is not dead: A new update promises to improve performance by removing ‘ambient rubbish’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I had pretty much written off MindsEye<\/a> as a dead issue. The first third-party game to be published by IO Interactive, it was such a mess at launch that it might also be the last<\/a>; concurrent player counts on Steam have crashed to a dozen or so a day, and there’s been literally no sign of life from the game or developer Build a Rocket Boy since mid-July. By all reasonable measures, it was over<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And yet, it was not over. Build a Rocket Boy punched out a new patch today, with the workmanlike name of Update 4<\/a>, which it says ushers in more bug fixes, performance enhancements, and “a range of UX improvements.” Interestingly, it also promises that Update 5 is in the works, with “major performance, combat and Enemy AI system improvement.”<\/p>\n

There’s no marquee change here that I can see. “Trailer Tanks in Free Roam now explode when shot at,” which I suppose is good\u2014explosions are fun\u2014and it disables “ambient rubbish” to improve performance, which leads to an obvious joke that, out of respect for the difficulty of making games, I will not make.<\/p>\n

“NPCs that are aiming and in-cover now look more natural” is another potentially notable fix: If you recall PC Gamer editor Tyler Wilde’s time with MindsEye<\/a>, NPCs looking natural in combat were in awfully short supply.<\/p>\n

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Yeah, that’s pretty bad, alright.<\/p>\n

Making the patch even more of a surprise is the way the whole MindsEye situation has been so bizarre<\/em>. Ahead of the game’s launch, Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO accused unnamed parties of “a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio<\/a>,” and instead of disavowing the statement, studio founder (and former Rockstar stalwart) Leslie Benzies made essentially the same claim<\/a> after MindsEye launched and tanked.<\/p>\n

Benzies also reportedly said the studio planned to “relaunch” the game at some point, even though a significant portion of the studio was laid off<\/a> after MindsEye bombed. Oh, and Build a Rocket Boy’s chief financial officer and chief legal officer both quit less than two weeks before the game was set to launch<\/a>. So yeah, it’s been a weird one.<\/p>\n

The obvious question now is, can MindsEye be saved? I’m not a naturally negative kind of guy, but to borrow a phrase, that’s gonna be a “no” from me. The concurrent player count on Steam (via SteamDB<\/a>), as I noted earlier, is vanishingly small: The release of the patch does seem to have sparked a bump\u2014to a 24-hour peak of 26, the highest it’s been since mid-August, when MindsEye briefly surged to 31 players at the same time. That’s not exactly throwing off big ‘Redemption Tour’ vibes.<\/p>\n

Even if MindsEye’s technical problems are eventually addressed, the general consensus among players is that the game just isn’t very good, and you can’t patch that. And Build a Rocket Boy has done itself no favors throughout any of this: Aside from patch notes and a mid-July post on X<\/a>, the studio has remained steadfastly silent, giving its community nothing to hold onto except a sense that they’ve been strung along and left hanging.<\/p>\n

So yeah, it’s definitely grim\u2014but on the other hand, there is a new patch out today. Anything’s possible, right? The full patch notes are below.<\/p>\n

IMPROVEMENTS<\/h2>\n

Environment<\/h2>\n