IOI Partners and Build A Rocket Boy, the publishers behind the Hitman games and the infamous MindsEye, will no longer be working together.
It may come as a shock to some that these two studios were even working together in the first place, but it was a pretty long partnership before it ended. IOI Partners is the “new” publishing division of IOI Interactive, which was established in 2024 after the studio bought itself out of Square Enix in 2017. They eventually found a game called MindsEye and started a collaboration to publish it.
It’s no secret that the game had a rocky release. As soon as it hit the stores and people started to play it, there were countless videos of the technical issues the game had on launch alone. Players expected a at least a decent game, as this was the project coming from Leslie Benzies, the former president of Rockstar North. The press release that this news came in did not say if it was because of the game’s poor performance, but they did give some insight into how the process will work.
“IOI Partners’ involvement with MindsEye comes to an end, except for any essential transitional functions required to transfer publisher-of-record status to Build A Rocket Boy.” The statement said. “Build A Rocket Boy will assume sole publishing responsibilities going forward, ensuring continuity for the MindsEye community and all partners. IOI Partners and BARB are coordinating closely to ensure a seamless transition over the coming weeks.”
As a side effect of the ending partnership, the Hitman level that was announced in June of 2025 will not happen anymore. The mission would have involved a crossover between Agent 47 and the cast of MindsEye, but we can only speculate as to what it would have entailed.
MindsEye scored the lowest Metacritic rating of 2025 and even had the CEO, Mark Gerhard, laying off staff because of suspected espionage and sabotage related to the game’s poor launch. After such a tumultuous history, we can only wait and see what the future of MindsEye looks like.
