Someone at the Build a Rocket Boy developer or publisher IO Interactive didn’t give up SpiritsEyeas several high-profile content creators are still sponsored to play the game after its December 2025 patch.
As spotted by FRVRYouTube creator and Twitch streamer Crikenwhose channel currently has over a million subscribers, recently uploaded a sponsored video of their SpiritsEye playthrough on January 14. While Twitch and YouTube are full of sponsored video game playthroughs, Criken’s video has been puzzling people ever since SpiritsEye has barely peaked above 30 concurrent players on Steam since its disastrous June 2025 release.
Several commenters on Criken’s video were shocked to discover that the creator wasn’t playing the game as a joke. “Oh I thought you were playing this because it’s basically a meme at this point I can’t believe they still sponsor people,” Didorial wrote. “They still sponsor? I’m impressed the company wants to keep this game alive. (7 current players on Steam btw),” Dazcoolman wrote.
Stranger still, he’s not the only big-name creator who appears to be paid to produce new videos for the ugly open world shooter at present. Quick navigation through the #MindsEyePartner on YouTube shows that YouTubers like SweeetTails, Blue Thunder Gaming, and Willyrex (the latter with over 17.2 million subscribers) have all been sponsored to play the game in the last month following the December 18 version 6.1 patch. blue thunder gamethe PR team who contacted the sponsorship even agreed upfront to let the creators “say whatever they want”. [they] I want” about the game.
YouTube/Kotaku Sponsored feeds were also part of the marketing strategy around SpiritsEyethe original launch, but ended up resulting in viral moments this only further cemented the shooter’s reputation for being boring and broken. Twitch streamer CohhCarnage was even asked to cancel his sponsored live stream of the game. just a few minutes later he had just told his viewers that it was about to begin.
All of this brings us to the inevitable question: why? To be honest, I don’t have an answer for you, because sponsored videos and streams don’t seem to have made much difference to the number of players on Steam. Maybe things are better on console. Granted, the game seems to be in a better state now than it was at launch, but I think the damage has already been done. A Cyberpunk 2077 This is not a recovery story. At least for now.
