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Former Grand Theft Auto lead developer Leslie Benzies had an ugly exit from Rockstar Games nearly a decade ago when he sued its parent company, Take-Two Interactive. Benzies subsequently co-founded Build a Rocket Boy and developed a GTA-like game called MindsEye, which is releasing next month. Now, Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard has suggested that the bad word of mouth about MindsEye is part of a "concerted effort" to trash the game and his studio.

Gerhard recently took part in a Q&A session on Discord (via IGN), where he agreed with the potentially explosive allegation that the negative responses to the game "were financed by someone." Gerhard's response to that suggestion was, "100%... Doesn't take much to guess who."

Although Gerhard didn't back down from his initial implication, he later clarified that he isn't accusing any specific players of being paid to bad mouth the game.

"I just said that there is a concerted effort by some people that don't want to see Leslie or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful that are making a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio. Its [sic] pretty easy to see the bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out."

Gerhard went on to suggest that "there are bot farms posting negative comments and dislikes" for MindsEye, but didn't elaborate beyond that.

MindsEye will be released on June 10 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game puts players in control of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier who has a implant in his head that's called the MindsEye. That device gives Jacob the ability to control drones and a few other tricks. It also shows him glimpses of a mission he can't remember, which results in an unknown faction attempting to kill him before he can piece that part of his past together.