IO Interactive ends MindsEye publishing agreement with Build a Rocket Boy

IOI Partners, the publishing division of IO Interactive, and Build a Rocket Boy have concluded its publishing agreement for MindsEye.

BARB has taken on sole publishing responsibilities for the game to “ensure continuity for the MindsEye community and all partners.” Both companies are “coordinating closely to ensure a seamless transition over the coming weeks.”

With the partnership ending, the planned collaboration between Hitman and MindsEye will not proceed. BARB said it “plans to work with partners on other projects in the future.”

This collaboration was IO Interactive’s first move into third-party publishing. It provided BARB marketing, distribution, localisation, and customer support for MindsEye, but not funding.

“We’re not going to turn into the Volkswagen of publishing overnight,” IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak told GamesIndustry.biz after the publishing agreement in October 2024. “Right now, we’re super focused on this partnership.”

“It’s a huge, ambitious game and it’s a huge responsibility, and honour, to be a part of it. But obviously this is another step in our journey. It is very possible that there will be more of this in the future for IO Interactive.”

MindsEye was poorly received at launch, with players reporting bugs and poor performance. This led BARB to cancel sponsored marketing streams at the last minute. The firm has since announced “a new phase of ongoing development” for the game.

In response to MindsEye’s launch, Abrak told IGN last September that it “wasn’t what [BARB] hoped for, and also what we didn’t hope for at IOI Partners.”

“They’re working hard on turning that around to regain the trust of the gamers out there, and they have tons of potential and content they’re working on. So hopefully they’ll succeed with that in the future.”

Earlier this month, BARB made further redundancies following a “difficult period” in the games industry and “corporate sabotage.”

“As leaders we take responsibility for the outcomes of our projects and the decisions that follow,” said CEO Mark Gerhard. “At the same time, the launch period was affected by factors beyond normal operational challenges and a competitive environment.”

The difficult launch led to the “brutal and heartbreaking step of reducing the size of the studio once again to ensure the long-term future of the company and the projects [it continues] to build.”