Boom or Bust: Could this new Scottish video game be the next Grand Theft Auto?
MindsEye is an ambitious big-budget single-player title developed by Edinburgh-based Build A Rocket Boy studio.
Headed by a former GTA producer, Leslie Benzies, the studio's upcoming maiden title has created a buzz on both the local and international gaming scenes, in no small part due to the scope of ambition they have set out for their game.
But recently the project has been attracting attention for all the wrong reasons.
Last month, a group of journalists and content creators were given access to a limited preview of the game.
Their reaction? Less than positive.
Some of those given access to the preview went as far as to call on the developers to postpone the game and use the time to fix and polish it into a finished product.
The overwhelmingly negative reaction has made the studio double down on confidence in their title, with Build A Rocket Boy's co-CEO, Mark Gerhard, claiming that people are being paid to 'trash the game' before it launches.
'There is a concerted effort by some people that don't want to see Leslie (Benzies) or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful that are making a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio,' Gerhard said.
'It's pretty easy to see the bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out.'
If the negative reaction, be it genuine or paid for, was not enough for the studio to deal with, two executives have left it just a week before the game's release.
As expected, the departure of their chief legal officer and chief financial officer did nothing to help alleviate the pressure piling up on the studio, with questions popping up about whether they would be leaving if they genuinely believed MindsEye is going to be successful.
And while it's entirely possible their departure has nothing to do with the game's potential fortunes, it only adds wind to the rumour mill that has been with the project for a while.
The lack of clarity seems to stem from a relative radio silence about the project from the get-go.
Before AI became the new buzzword, everyone was talking about the metaverse.
MindsEye was initially described as an 'experience' taking place within one such metaverse, the Everywhere platform that was supposed to rival the likes of Fortnite and Roblox.
Apart from that, very little is known about it, with the platform seemingly falling off the radar while the studio focuses on MindsEye.
However, one cannot say that here, Build A Rocket Boy have done a much better job explaining exactly what the game is really about.
That leaves gamers wondering what it actually is that they may be buying come Tuesday. Build A Rocket Buy Players take on the role of a former soldier, Jacob Diaz.
For the record, MindsEye is billed as a linear, narrative-driven, single-player third-person shooter set in a future where artificial intelligence and human greed bring Earth to the brink of collapse.
From trailers, the game gives an impression of something between Grand Theft Auto V and Cyberpunk 2077, with players taking on the role of a former soldier, Jacob Diaz.
For their part, the studio have never tried to position MindsEye as a GTA competitor, but instead aim to create a unique title, something that has not been seen before.
Whether they have been successful in pitching that to the players is up for debate.
In a recent interview for GamesIndustry.biz, Leslie Benzies has opened up on their vision for MindsEye and beyond.
One of the key takeaways from it is that the game should act as a gateway into a much larger 'epic universe'.
For the next ten years, the studio plans to evolve the game through regular content updates, ranging from standalone ones, like races, with others serving the larger narrative.
'Once players have experienced the full ten-year arc, they'll understand the shape and scope of the MindsEye universe,' Benzies explained.
User-generated content will also have a big role to play, with players being able to create their own levels, races and missions via tools called Build.MindsEye and Play.MindsEye and share them with others.
Those tools were originally part of the aforementioned Everywhere project; what it means for the project itself is unclear, but Benzies insisted that all will become clear 'very soon'.
What's not as clear is why the studio decided to wait until a few weeks before launch to reveal those, arguably crucial, details. Build A Rocket Buy MindsEye is billed as a linear, narrative-driven, single-player third-person shooter.
Unclarity and controversy aside, there is every chance MindsEye will turn out to be a great game.
Those in the industry believe the fact that the title attracted perhaps the most funding out of all the Scottish video game projects ever and the amount of talent working on the game should ensure a high level of quality.
Should MindsEye not be in tip-top shape upon its release, Build A Rocket Buy can take slight comfort in the knowledge that other games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man's Sky, managed to move past 'disastrous' launches and turn their fortunes around.
A success would undoubtedly mean another boost in prestige for the local video game industry, but should the game prove to be less impressive, those in the sector believe it's robust enough for its reputation not to be damaged.
Players won't have to wait long to decide whether MindsEye is a boom or bust.
The game releases on Tuesday, June 10, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Edinburgh festivals 2025: the best theatre, music and dance shows ranked
August in the Scottish capital has become such a huge phenomenon in the cultural calendar that hotel prices rise to become the most expensive in the world, with some performers opting to camp in tents or stay in Glasgow to make sure they can afford it. If you are one of the lucky ones who has managed to find a place to stay, we have compiled a list of the best theatre, music and dance shows reviewed by our critics (comedy recommendations are in a separate list). It's ranked by star rating and will be updated regularly throughout the month. Feel free to contribute in the comment section, telling us about your highlights. ★★★★★Nobody can say the Edinburgh International Festival shies away from epic work. This year its opening concert featured John Tavener's The Veil of the Temple. Lasting eight hours, it is possibly the world's longest vocal work and for obvious reasons hasn't been performed complete since its 2003 premiere. Congratulations, then, to the EIF not just for throwing the kitchen sink at it — well, 250 singers, tam-tam, organ, temple bells and the terrifying Tibetan horn — but also for presenting it so MorrisonRead the full review ★★★★☆Do you need to be a jazz aficionado to get the most out of the writer-director Oliver Kaderbhai's portrait of Miles Davis at Summerhall? Well, it helps if you want to catch every one of the throwaway references to musicians who came into the orbit of the trumpeter some called 'the prince of darkness'. But this hypnotic play with music, structured around the making of the modal classic Kind of Blue, works superbly on its own terms, thanks in part to an extraordinarily charismatic performance from the newcomer Benjamin Akintuyosi. The 21 year-old Rada graduate captures Davis's unmistakable rasping voice and summons up his utterly distinctive mixture of swagger and sensitivity. If the references to drugs and race are the stuff of conventional jazz bio-drama, there's a crucial extra ingredient to this show: the Canadian-born trumpeter Jay Phelps supplies remarkable echoes of Davis's sound. Not content with exploring fragments of Freddie Freeloader and other tracks from the Forties and Fifties, Phelps — who's credited with the play's original concept — rises to the challenge of voicing some of Davis's thoughts. He also portrays a formidable list of characters including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry. We still tend to think of Miles as an utterly contemporary figure so it comes as a shock to realise next year marks his centenary. In Kaderbhai's script, the great man, truculent as ever, listens back to studio tapes and offers advice to Phelps about making a career in the 21st century. From there, the piece travels back through the bebop years and the short-lived Paris romance with Juliette Gréco, who is represented by a video clip of that wistful ballad Il n'y a plus d'après — Colin J Smith's video backdrop is artfully woven together. Sticklers for facts will query whether memories of Gréco really did inspire the writing of Blue in Green, a piece which, as the script acknowledges, many now attribute to Davis's great pianist Bill Evans. But Akintuyosi's imperious glances are enough to warn you against getting into an argument with him. TechCube 0, to Aug 25, Davis • Edinburgh Festival 2025: the best shows to see this year ★★★★☆Almost certainly the best-dressed orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, the American ensemble known simply as NYO2 flooded the stage of the Usher Hall with a hundred teenagers wearing dazzling red trousers, black T-shirts and natty matching trainers. For those of us still numbed by the eight hours of John Tavener's mystic ruminations in this venue the day before, the sight of these exuberant youths, clearly having a whale of a time on their European debut, was a tonic. And their playing, galvanised with characteristic energy by the Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, was just as exciting. It's strange to recall that America had no national youth orchestra until Carnegie Hall organised one in 2012 (modelling it on Britain's National Youth Orchestra). NYO2 came four years later, founded for younger players (14 to 17) from diverse backgrounds. But any worries that this band might be too callow to deal with a testing programme were swiftly dispelled. After a slightly tentative start to Jimmy Lopez's Peru Negro, that rumbustiously orchestrated fantasy on Peruvian folk songs was delivered with terrific verve, its pounding dance rhythms matched later by Arturo Marquez's La Conga del Fuego Nuevo, which was played as an encore. Between these two Latin American fiestas came two much darker Russian works. It was the hair-raising fast movements of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony that really impressed, with just the right feeling of runaway mania. But all else paled next to Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto, given a wonderful performance — by turns poignant, angry or sardonic — with Alisa Weilerstein the soloist. One scarcely dared breathe during her unaccompanied cadenza, which seemed drawn from some deep well of profound sadness. Payare (Mr Weilerstein) didn't always manage a perfect rapport with his wife but what a masterclass she provided for the young players around her. Richard Morrison ★★★☆☆Sex always sells. This chamber piece about amateur porn is just the sort of venture that gives the Fringe a taboo-busting frisson. Ushers at Summerhall were handing out stickers to place over our phone cameras to make sure no one tried to sneak a photo and I can report that, at the performance I saw, a few people did quietly walk out. For all that, the debut drama by David Jonsson, the Bafta rising star-winning actor who made such an impression in Rye Lane and Industry, isn't exactly Last Tango in Edinburgh. True, the dialogue is peppered with references to the more arcane end of the fetish market, yet at heart the play, driven by intense, glancing dialogue, is as much a study of the grey area between love, lust and friendship as a guided tour to the online industry. • Rye Lane's David Jonsson: why I've written a play about amateur porn Jonsson has concocted whiplash conversations between his two protagonists, Megan and Kevin — brilliantly played by Tash Cowley and Michael Workeye — who spend much of the time in various states of undress. (Unless I blinked too much, there isn't actually any nudity.) Zi Alikhan directs at a breathless tempo; some of the lines flicked past so quickly that I couldn't catch them from my corner seat. Nor is it easy to accept the premise that these two pals so abruptly decide to embark on a career as home video sex performers, marketing themselves to folk who are willing to pay good money to watch homemade romps. While Kevin, who fancies himself as an auteur, fusses over camera angles, Megan throws herself into her new role as internet vamp. There's a memorably awkward interlude when a pair of foreign swingers — portrayed by Lewis Peek and Daniela Manuwuike — show up to take part in a foursome. A close-up of Megan's uneasy expression stares out from the projector screen behind the cheap sofa. Later, a hint of racial and class tension in the central relationship is left dangling in the air like a hastily discarded bra. Still, even if the drama needs more time and space to unfurl, Cowley and Workeye make a compelling pair of adventurers. TechCube 0, to Aug 25, Davis ★★★☆☆Our news cycle lurches along at such a frantic pace that it's easy to forget it's not so long ago that the world's banking system was on the edge of meltdown. Kudos, then, to that ultra-prolific playwright James Graham for zooming in on the crisis that brought the Royal Bank of Scotland crashing down in 2008. The drama that Graham has brought to the Edinburgh International Festival, featuring a jovial cameo by Brian Cox as the ghost of Adam Smith — yes, he of the invisible hand of the market — has some of the knockabout qualities of the dramatist's football pageant, Dear England. Festival Theatre, to Aug 9, DavisRead the full review
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
A new start after 60: I became a dancer at 68 – and will perform my first solo show at 82
At 82, Christine Thynne is an emerging artist. 'Risk! There's a colossal amount of risk,' Thynne says. She is about to perform her show, These Mechanisms, over three weeks at the Edinburgh fringe. While 'emerging' isn't a word often applied to artists in their 80s, Thynne says the description is appropriate. 'I wasn't there before,' she says. 'I wasn't a solo performer.' Thynne's show melds aspects of her life – she trained as a physiotherapist in the 1960s – along with other passions. Among her props are planks, stepladders and water. 'Things I shouldn't be doing,' she says. 'Moving scaffolding planks. Changing the shape of stepladders. Carrying water.' She enjoys sea kayaking, having progressed from being coached to paddling the Lofoten islands in Norway, in her 50s. 'Sliding up a wave, going down the other side – it was so exciting,' she says. But when she was browsing the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh, Scotland, where she lives, and saw a brochure for a class in Dance Base, Scotland's national centre for dance, she balked. The class was free for the over-60s, and Thynne was 68. 'I thought: 'Dare I?'' For many people, kayaking in open water would be scarier than joining a dance class, but 'in life', Thynne says, 'there are occasions when you can lose your self-confidence. You can lose your identity. I was very nervous, wondering could I do it, would I be good enough?' She had done a bit of ballet and tap growing up in the north-east of England, and loved sport. Not to compete, but because she 'loved the way the body moved'. At 16, she wrote to the chartered society of physiotherapists, and did a course on day release while working locally at Imperial Chemical Industries. 'I still love the way the body moves,' she says, 'How you can feel the tension in a muscle – is it the right place you're feeling? Which muscles are weak? Which joints are affected? And how even with simple exercise, you can make people feel much better.' After a divorce in the mid-1980s, she embarked on a second career, teaching movement and music, and anatomy and massage to therapists, while raising two teenage sons. She has loved the outdoors since her mum, who was a professional musician, took Thynne and her two sisters 'out into the fresh air, to have this love of the countryside, to go brambling, to walk. She gave that to us.' Thynne, similarly, is 'somebody who pushes myself, takes opportunities, takes a risk,' she says. 'I'm obviously prepared to go on trying and doing, [asking] can I do this? And then being surprised that yes, I can.' When she went to her first dance session, it was 'won-der-ful!' she says, singing the word. 'I realised that somebody was teaching me what to do, and there was music playing and I could let go and I felt that joy of my body moving, coming through me.' She progressed to Prime, Dance Base's semi-professional company for over-60s. After that came funding from Luminate, Dance Base, Creative Scotland and Made in Scotland. For These Mechanisms, she has collaborated with the choreographer Robbie Synge. 'It's almost as if I'm having another career.' Along the way, she has learned 'to listen … to find out more about myself, my capabilities. How to put my point of view forward, to be part of a team.' She hopes to tour the show overseas. In the meantime, she keeps fit. 'Each morning, I hang for two or three minutes, take my body weight, then I turn around and hang the other way. Then I do some gentle stretching.' And, of course, she dances. All the time. 'I probably dance if I am going from the fridge to the cooker, taking some dishes,' she says, swirling her hands in the air. 'Isn't that what dance is? You just have to let go and explore it.' These Mechanisms isn't exactly autobiographical, but it 'tells a story of persistence, of joy, of risk', which sounds like Thynne. 'You could do this in your 20s, you could do it in your 80s,' she says. 'It's about the limits of the human body and the desire to make things happen.' These Mechanisms runs until 20 August at DB3 as part of Dance Base's fringe programme, delivered in partnership with Assembly festival Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?
North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
In Pictures: UK and Ireland facing the wrath of Storm Floris
Spectators at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival had to brave inclement conditions to watch artists perform on the Royal Mile. The promenade at Blackpool was largely deserted as the wind and rain persuaded people to stay indoors while in Birmingham brollies were out in force, although one man opened his arms and embraced the rain. With train services affected in Edinburgh, there were other issues for visitors to the Scottish capital, with some turned away from Edinburgh Castle. The conditions also made it difficult for those at the Fringe, both performers and spectators.
