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Brink goes free-to-play

Brink goes free-to-play

2011 shooter Brink has had a change of business model.

The title is now listed as free-to-play on PC. This announcement came in a very to the point news post on Steam, which doesn’t explain why the six-year-old first-person shooter has undergone this change. 

Aside from DLC for the title, there’s nothing in the way of monetisation options, which begs the question how it is going to generate money. Though, given that the game is six years old, this might not be a concern. 

Brink launched in 2011 and featured team-based shooter gameplay with some pretty neat parkour-esque traversal options. However, that didn’t translate into sales, with the game shifting just 2.5m units as of 2012.

Developer Splash Damage is currently making another free-to-play release, Dirty Bomb, which is currently in an open beta phase and has been since June 2015. This title is the company’s first brand new IP. 

More on Dirty Bomb in our upcoming interview with Splash Damage. 

Also now is as good a time as any to remind you all of this simply epic trailer for the game.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.