The comeback for MindsEye has officially begun, with developer Build a Rocket Boy seemingly hoping for a Cyberpunk 2077-style redemption story. Since the game's disastrous launch last year, BARB has laid off staff and blamed internal saboteurs for its failure. CEO Mark Gerhard has repeatedly claimed corporate sabotage but has yet to provide public proof. Instead, he teased an update that would shed light on the matter, and now that content is here in the form of the Blacklisted update, released today alongside a permanent price cut. Starting today, MindsEye costs $34.99 for the Standard Edition and $47.99 for the Deluxe Edition.
The update features a new mission where players take on the role of Julia Black, a world-class assassin tasked with dismantling a criminal network tearing a company apart from within. The subtext is obvious, and the mission is quite brief—originally designed as a crossover with Hitman before publisher IO Interactive pulled out, so it shares many similarities with that series. It's open-ended, features multiple targets, and can be completed in under an hour. Gerhard noted that Blacklisted is just the beginning, and BARB plans to expand the game further. "Blacklisted marks the first new story campaign for MindsEye since launch, and we're excited to welcome players back to Redrock City to experience it in a new way," he said. "Rather than traditional DLC, Blacklisted is delivered through our user-generated content platform Arcadia, which is built into MindsEye. Now is the perfect time to experience MindsEye, with over a year of enhancements, new content, and a more accessible price of entry."
Arcadia is a secondary mode offering non-story content like missions, races, and challenges, as well as user-generated content tools. So far, the update hasn't moved the needle much—MindsEye only has 26 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. The game is also available on consoles, but player numbers aren't public there.
For those who haven't kept up, MindsEye is a 2025 action-adventure crime game set in the near future, heavily influenced by Grand Theft Auto. That's because it was overseen by Leslie Benzies, former Rockstar North boss who led the GTA series and Red Dead Redemption. After a sabbatical following GTA V, Benzies claimed Rockstar pushed him out and took legal action, eventually settling confidentially before founding Build a Rocket Boy. MindsEye launched last summer to poor reviews, with IGN giving it a 4/10, calling it "high on ambition but low on original ideas." Earlier this month, staff sued BARB after bosses reportedly admitted installing secret surveillance software on employee devices.
