Brink has gone free-to-play on PC after six years


Brink has gone free-to-play on PC after six years screenshot

We occasionally see multiplayer-focused games go free-to-play when they underperform. Evolve and Battleborn are two recent examples; publisher 2K Games eventually made them free when it was clear that residual sales had dried up, both in an effort raise the active player count and to earn some cash from in-game purchases.

Today's instance is a weird one. With no real heads-up, Bethesda has turned Brink free-to-play. History has long passed over Brink, as it's an old game without much of an audience anymore. This Steam player tracker estimates that there was a peak concurrent player count of 44 in July.

The timing is odd considering that Brink originally released in May 2011, but the way this game is generally regarded makes things even more confusing. Brink launched to a largely tepid reception, as reviewers mostly agreed that it never fully made good on its ideas for movement-based combat. It looked cool in a way that it couldn't deliver on.

The question attached to Brink going free-to-play is: What does Bethesda have up its sleeve? Publishers rarely give a product away for free without an ulterior motive, even if that product is six years old and incapable of driving revenue anymore. Is there some sort of Brink resurgence on the horizon, maybe via a sequel? Is the free-to-play version planning microtransactions in the near future?

Regardless, the free-to-play route is already working to some degree. At time of writing, 343 people were playing Brink. That might not be a particularly impressive number compared to other Steam games, but it's the most for Brink since July 2012. Improbably, this fast multiplayer shooter is back from the brink of death, even though many assumed it was already long dead.

Brink [Steam]

XCOM, Borderlands and more in 2K Games Humble Bundle for PSN


XCOM, Borderlands and more in 2K Games Humble Bundle for PSN screenshot

If you have a participating PSN account, then there's currently a very cool 2K Games bundle available over at the Humble Bundle site, bagging you a lot of great, classic titles, across various Sony platforms, for very little cash.

Currently, just five dollars will get you XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization Revolution II for the PS Vita. Alongside these titles you also get BioShock, The Bureau, Spec Ops: The Line, Mafia II, XCOM: Enemy Within, and Borderlands 1 & 2 for the PS3. If that wasn't enough the $5 deal also includes Battleborn and Evolve for the PS4. That's eleven games in total!

Stepping up a tier to twenty dollars will also add the excellent XCOM 2 for the PS4. That's a hell of a lot of good games for a pretty slim amount of cash, the proceeds of which can be donated to the current charity, Covenant House, which helps the homeless youth.

As usual the current bundle will be available for the next two weeks. It is required that you have a PSN account registered to one of the countries listed here. Be sure to check the link before you put down your money to avoid disappointment, followed by rage, then possibly structural damage.

Humble 2K PSN Bundle [Humble Bundle]

Humble's New 2K Bundle Is Just For PlayStation Owners


PlayStation owners can finally take advantage of the crazy value Humble offers with this 2K Bundle. Games are redeemable either for the Vita, PS3, or PS4, but the PS4 titles include XCOM 2, Evolve, and $10 of Battleborn Platinum VC. As always, a portion of your purchase goes to charity, and the titles are split among…

Read more...

Cliff Bleszinski Isn’t Worried About LawBreakers Underwhelming Launch


Cliff Bleszinski’s fps arena shooter, LawBreakers finally hit the shelve’s last week. While the game has been hailed as significantly memorable experience paying homage to early 2000’s shooters, it hasn’t been performing as well as we’d have hoped. Having a look on the Steam charts, you can see that LawBreakers only has around 1500 concurrent players – worse than Battleborn’s launch.

In an Interview with Eurogamer Bleszinski noted that the gaming isn’t performing as well as it should have – but he isn’t very bothered about it, stating that he’d rather have a game that ramps up popularity over time than one that launches and fizzles out.

Cliff Bleszinski: It’s like I said, it’s a marathon not a sprint. I’d rather be the underhyped game that slowly ramps up into something that people adore than something that comes out with way too much hype that there’s a backlash for, which is why I think the Steam reviews are so positive. We’re going to continue to raise awareness, continue to support the product – if you look at the phenomenon that was League of Legends, it built off a Warcraft 3 mod then slowly but surely blossomed into this immense amazing thing, and I’d rather be the game that comes up and has that hockey stick ramp with a slow burn and builds up rather than the triple-A hype machine where you have a bazillion people playing it month one and it goes down exponentially then they follow up with an annual product.

Thinking of picking up LawBreakers? Check out our First Impressions of the title, here.

The post Cliff Bleszinski Isn’t Worried About LawBreakers Underwhelming Launch appeared first on Gameranx.

Blog Post: Gearbox Announces New FPS Game Codenamed Project 1v1


Gearbox is developing a new competitive first-person shooter, currently codenamed Project 1v1. The game is described as combining "fast-paced 1v1 first person combat with the metagame strategy of a collectible card game."

Outside of its website and a short description, we know little about what Project 1v1 entails. A closed beta on PC will occur this summer to test out the online infrastructure and to hear player feedback. You can click here to sign up for a chance to participate.

The short beta will include three game modes:

  • Ranked: Match with an opponent based on player rating. Win ranked matches to earn experience and crates containing new cards.
  • Challenge: Challenge your friend to an unranked match.
  • Arena: Queue up to challenge the current Arena champion – and win to take their place.

 

Our Take
With such little information, it's difficult to say what Project 1v1 will offer, but fingers crossed it's a step up from Battleborn.