"Eye of Heart" first release disaster reappears in 2077 shadows PS launches refund investigation
Build a Rocket Boy Studio, founded by Leslie Benzies, former president of R Star North, has fallen into a public opinion storm on the first day of its release. The game was severely criticized by players for its serious bugs, disaster-level optimization on PC and blurry picture quality, and was even accused of "not like a fully released game." What is even more worrying is that PlayStation has opened a refund channel for many players and has rarely admitted that it is "investigating game optimization issues" - this statement is exactly the same as the wording before the 2020 "Cyberpunk 2077" first release and removal incident, which was forced to be suspended by Sony for up to 6 months due to quality issues.
The screenshot of the refund posted by Reddit users shows that the PlayStation customer service not only handled the refund quickly, but also revealed that "has been paying attention to the optimization controversy of "Eye of Heart". Some players pointed out that this is the first time PlayStation has launched such a survey on third-party games after Cyberpunk 2077, implying that "Eye of Heart" may face the risk of being removed from the shelves. Although Build a Rocket Boy has not responded to rumors of being removed from the shelves, the overwhelming bug recording videos on social media (such as characters stuck into the terrain, NPC collective twitching, etc.) have made players' confidence fall to the bottom.
Faced with the crisis, Build a Rocket Boy issued a statement on Thursday local time, acknowledging that "most crash problems have been located" and promised to launch the first fix patch as soon as Friday. However, the anger of the player community has not subsided. Many players pointed out that the game did not provide review versions to the media before it was released. This abnormal operation of "zero publicity, zero trial play" is suspected to be the developer deliberately concealing technical defects and trying to make players become "paid testers."
At present, "Eye of Heart" is evaluated as "commonly praised and criticized" (60% negative reviews), which is slightly improved from the first day's "mostly negative reviews", but player criticism is still focused on three core issues:
Technical disaster: PC side frequently crashes, frame rate plummets, and the loading time on the host side is too long;
AI IQ is disconnected: NPC behavior logic is chaotic, and the task triggering mechanism is useless;
Shrinking picture quality: The light and shadow effect in the promotional film is huge and the actual performance is even ridiculed by players as a "PS2 legacy".
The crash of "Eye of Heart" once again exposed the potential risks of small and medium-sized teams challenging the 3A open world game. Although Leslie Benzies' resume endorses the game, Build a Rocket Boy obviously underestimates the difficulty of technical polishing and content filling. Compared with the long road to repair of "Cyberpunk 2077", players' patience with "Eye of Heart" may be more limited - if subsequent updates cannot quickly fulfill their promises, this work carrying the "foreign executive ambitions of R Star" may become another typical case of "opening high and closing low".
From the PlayStation refund survey to the popularity of Steam's negative reviews, the start of "Eye of Heart" has fallen into a desperate situation. Whether Build a Rocket Boy can turn the tide through continuous updates depends not only on the speed of technical repair, but also tests its sincerity in crisis public relations. In the game market where "first launch is about to fight", a disastrous starter may destroy the brand reputation accumulated over several years, and the future of "Eye of Heart" may be hanging on the line.
