MindsEye’s response was so mindblowingly negative its star thought ‘I might never work in another game again’
By Joshua Wolens
Copyright pcgamer
Skip to main content
Close main menu
THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
View Profile
Search PC Gamer
PC Gaming Show
Movies & TV
Affiliate links
Meet the team
Community guidelines
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£35.99Subscribe now
Borderlands 4
Essential Hardware
Battlefield 6
Don’t miss these
MindsEye’s messy launch shenanigans has IO Interactive hesitant to play publisher for more games in the future: ‘That remains to be seen’
Third Person Shooter
MindsEye boss reportedly blames its failure on ‘saboteurs’ and says a re-launch is in the works, even as the entire development studio is at risk of layoff
Gaming Industry
‘Maybe I’ve directed my last game,’ Dead Space creator Glen Schofield says after being unable to secure funding for his new project: ‘With the industry on pause, AAA feels like it’s a long ways away’
Third Person Shooter
Anthem’s former executive producer says BioWare was so good at telling stories that its original Anthem pitch convinced EA to greenlight a game it couldn’t deliver: ‘Maybe there wasn’t anything behind the very evocative statement’
7 years on, CliffyB is ‘still bitter’ about people gravedancing when his studio Boss Key failed: ‘It was amazing at first and then, well, it broke me for a good long while’
Third Person Shooter
Former Anthem lead producer says flying in BioWare’s doomed live action shooter is proof of the dysfunction in its development: ‘It’s Anthem’s worst feature, because the consequences of flying aren’t adequately taken into account’
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s VA for Gustave jokes that he feels ‘like a total fraud’ since he spent just 4 hours in the booth—and while ‘fraud’ is way too harsh, Gustave’s mocap actor does deserve laurels, too
Gaming Industry
In the wake of Perfect Dark’s cancellation, Joanna Dark’s voice actor urges fans to help save the series: ‘Agent Dark doesn’t give up and neither should any of you’
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s director had 2 scrapped scenes from the game’s ending, gives props to mocap actors who ‘saved’ it at the last minute
Gustave’s voice actor, Charlie Cox, admits he needs to ‘play the game’ after asking if Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s goofball sidekick is the ‘big baddie at the end’
Gaming Industry
‘This year seems shakier than ever,’ BioWare veteran Mark Darrah says, and live service games are a big part of the reason—but Grand Theft Auto 6 might force the industry to change
Perfect Dark dev shoots down claim the ace-looking reveal was fake: ‘It’s probably more real than you think’
Monster Hunter Wilds’ poor post-launch reception bubbles up to the surface in shareholder meetings, though Capcom says it’s ‘committed’ to fixing performance and content woes
Movies & TV
Randy Pitchford says the Borderlands film would’ve sucked a whole lot more if he’d directed it: ‘It would have been way worse’
Gaming Industry
ESO devs at ZeniMax reel from Microsoft’s ‘hollow’ layoff emails, with some wondering how a ‘carcass of workers’ is ‘supposed to keep shipping award-winning games’
MindsEye’s response was so mindblowingly negative its star thought ‘I might never work in another game again’
Joshua Wolens
16 September 2025
Alex Hernandez and the MindsEye team had a rough go of the game’s launch.
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)
By all accounts, MindsEye was not a good game, and I doubt its ongoing updates will ever change that perception in the eyes of audiences everywhere. The Steam reviews are at 37%, ‘Mostly Negative’ and the Metacritic matches it exactly. People do not like this videogame.
In fact, they don’t like it so much that star Alex Hernandez thought it might outright kill his videogame career. Hernandez, who played main character Jacob Diaz, said in a chat with Frvr that being, in essence, the public face of a failed videogame is a pretty tough thing to go through (even though Hernandez’s performance was good, as far as I’m aware).
“It’s hard. I’m not gonna lie about that,” said Hernandez. Not just for himself, mind you, but “for the 300 or so employees at Build A Rocket Boy, you’re like ‘I hope this goes really well.’ I want them all to get raises and have a giant party and have this be the job that launches their career.”
Related Articles
MindsEye’s messy launch shenanigans has IO Interactive hesitant to play publisher for more games in the future: ‘That remains to be seen’
MindsEye boss reportedly blames its failure on ‘saboteurs’ and says a re-launch is in the works, even as the entire development studio is at risk of layoff
‘Maybe I’ve directed my last game,’ Dead Space creator Glen Schofield says after being unable to secure funding for his new project: ‘With the industry on pause, AAA feels like it’s a long ways away’
Which, well, isn’t what happened. “Videogamers are a unique species—and I am one of them—where… the feelings are so strong, and the internet is an anonymous place where people will share things they would never say to your face ever… Even if they thought it was a pile of trash, they just wouldn’t look you in the face and be like, ‘Everyone who worked on this game deserves to die’.”
Alas, the internet means lots of people very much are like that, and it was tough both for Hernandez to experience and to see the team he’d worked with go through.
(Image credit: Build a Rocket Boy)
Hernandez said that, although he’s developed a “pretty thick skin” over the course of his acting career, “It was a good two days of, like, ‘Fuck’. Just based on the response, not based on the work itself… I was like, ‘I might never work in another game again.'”
Because he was, after all, the face of the game. “Because one of the caveats of being the face on the box is that people, rightly or wrongly, will associate all of their opinions and, more importantly, their emotions about this game with my face…
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.
“My name will now be associated with something that many people have regarded as pretty fucking bad. And as an artist, as a man, as a gamer, that hurts, it’s wildly painful.”
The good news, though, is that after having a “wallow” in those feelings for a couple of days, Hernandez picked himself up and soldiered on, even if some folks still inexplicably thought his social media pages were the best place to complain about the game. “I can’t be responsible for the whole thing, even though my face is on the box, and I have to accept the reality, there is some amount of gamers that are going to carry that negativity with them.”
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
Joshua Wolens
Social Links Navigation
News Writer
One of Josh’s first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he’s been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He’ll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin’s Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you’re all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.
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’s messy launch shenanigans has IO Interactive hesitant to play publisher for more games in the future: ‘That remains to be seen’
MindsEye boss reportedly blames its failure on ‘saboteurs’ and says a re-launch is in the works, even as the entire development studio is at risk of layoff
‘Maybe I’ve directed my last game,’ Dead Space creator Glen Schofield says after being unable to secure funding for his new project: ‘With the industry on pause, AAA feels like it’s a long ways away’
Anthem’s former executive producer says BioWare was so good at telling stories that its original Anthem pitch convinced EA to greenlight a game it couldn’t deliver: ‘Maybe there wasn’t anything behind the very evocative statement’
7 years on, CliffyB is ‘still bitter’ about people gravedancing when his studio Boss Key failed: ‘It was amazing at first and then, well, it broke me for a good long while’
Former Anthem lead producer says flying in BioWare’s doomed live action shooter is proof of the dysfunction in its development: ‘It’s Anthem’s worst feature, because the consequences of flying aren’t adequately taken into account’
Latest in Action
How to get all three Silkshot tools in Silksong and which is the best
How to reach the Heart of the Woods in Silksong
Those years of Silksong memes were no joke: Even Borderlands 4 can’t escape its shadow after their first weekends on Steam
Hollow Knight: Silksong player melts its hardest bosses with an endless fountain of tools: ‘I think I unlocked easy mode’
Silksong has sold more than 3.2 million copies on Steam in less than 2 weeks, industry analyst firm estimates
I just found out I’ve been using Silksong’s powerful Thread Storm ability wrong this entire time
Latest in News
MindsEye’s response was so mindblowingly negative its star thought ‘I might never work in another game again’
The creator of X-Com isn’t worried about old fans not vibing with his new game: ‘It’s successful for people who have maybe not played any strategy at all’
This spicy leverless DIY kit has tiny circuit boards under each button so you can create your own rapid trigger Hitbox
I don’t want to give horror game devs any ideas but this chilling ‘sphere o’ mouths’ lip-syncing robot is haunting my dreams and I want it to stop
This entire website is hosted on a disposable vape so think twice before throwing one in the trash
Witcher creator Andrzej Sapkowski gets gold Polish culture medal, accepts it with face like he’s just had his Switch 2 pre-order cancelled
HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES
LATEST GAME REVIEWS
Best gaming laptop in 2025: I’ve tested a ton of notebooks this generation and these are the best in every category
Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming
Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
Best graphics cards in 2025: I’ve tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today’s top cards
Best gaming chair in 2025: I’ve tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I’d suggest for any PC gamer
Humanscale Freedom Chair with Headrest review
Strange Antiquities review
Medion Erazer Scout 15 E1 review
Hollow Knight: Silksong review
Asus ProArt Case PA401 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…
