The Everywhere project, introduced grandly in 2023 as a revolutionary platform merging game, creation, and community sharing, now appears to have taken a backseat, if not abandoned, in favor of MindsEye, a GTA-like game that has become the new focal point for Build a Rocket Boy studio. It is unfortunate because Everywhere was originally intended to be a platform with infinite possibilities. Conceived by Leslie Benzies, the project promised a playful metaverse set in an open-world called Utropia, somewhere between Roblox and Fortnite. Players were meant to create their own action or racing games using a powerful suite of tools named Arcadia, before sharing them with a global community.
Simultaneously, the studio announced the development of MindsEye, a AAA action-adventure game set in a futuristic world, initially intended to be integrated into Everywhere as premium additional content. However, one year later, the situation changed when, in October of the previous year, IO Interactive, creators of Hitman, announced that they would publish MindsEye as an autonomous game, independent of the Everywhere platform. Recently, with the release of the official gameplay trailer, it was confirmed that MindsEye will feature its own creation suite, divided into two parts:
Build.MindsEye: a space to create your own games.
Play.MindsEye: a platform for playing others’ creations.
It’s no longer a simple solo game but a complete ecosystem, very close to the initial concept of Everywhere.
VGC reported that Build a Rocket Boy confirmed the integration of the Arcadia tool, originally designed for Everywhere, into MindsEye. The development of MindsEye has naturally absorbed the initial ambitions of the platform. “Arcadia was intended to be our creation platform,” said a studio spokesperson, “but as MindsEye and Build a Rocket Boy’s ecosystem evolved, it became more focused: Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye.” They also noted that the beta tests conducted under the name Everywhere were actually a testing ground for the creation tool now integrated into MindsEye.
Everywhere is nowhere… A clear sign indicates that the official Everywhere website now redirects to MindsEye, and the project name ‘Everywhere’ has vanished from all official communications. However, during its initial 2023 presentation, the studio claimed to be working on “two distinct AAA projects.” At that time, MindsEye was intended to be secondary content, activatable within Everywhere with assets usable in Arcadia. Today, this modular architecture seems entirely abandoned in favor of a centralized model around MindsEye, positioning itself as both a premium game and a creative platform.
This strategic shift highlights a necessary adjustment often required in the development of ambitious projects. Instead of maintaining two separate entities, Build a Rocket Boy decided to integrate Everywhere’s aspirations into a more cohesive and marketable single product. After several years of testing, the team concluded that it was more prudent to realign their focus rather than continue without clear direction. The decision raises important questions. Regardless, MindsEye is scheduled for release on June 10, 2025, across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms. It remains unclear whether the name Everywhere will be reintroduced or if it has become part of a project’s history that was ahead of its time.
For those who are fascinated by the initial ambitions of Everywhere and its innovative approach to game creation, we invite you to delve into our earlier piece titled “Everywhere: Leslie Benzies’ (ex-Rockstar Games) Fortnite Reveals Its Universe in Video” published on September 21, 2023. In this blog post, author Marcus Thompson explores how Everywhere aimed to democratize game development with its user-friendly ARCADIA tool and the promise of a vast, interconnected world akin to Fortnite. The piece provides an insightful look into the project’s inception and early developments, offering readers a glimpse into what could have been. Check it out Everywhere: Leslie Benzies’ (ex-Rockstar Games) Fortnite Reveals Its Universe in Video for a deeper dive into the original vision of Everywhere.
