What do u think SD would have to do in order to turn it ALL around at this point?
Don’t say “they should hav made it not ****”
I MEAN NOW what would they have to do to get MORE ppl plyn Brink more regularly?
PS this question is relavent to all the platforms ( plz say which 1 u are referring to )
It wouldn’t matter what they did. Too much damage is done and it is too late in the game now.
Brink isn’t going to be revived again. It doesn’t take a marketing wizard to understand that for a game to be popular it needs to work on the moment most people will try it out, not months after.
Not true. There are a lot of games that “didn’t work” out of the gates that still maintained some level of relevance. The prime example I’ll use is MAG. When it released, it suffered the same pitfalls as Brink. Horrible lag, lack of content and so on. The trade off was you had up to 256 people on the battlefield at once. MAG released in January 2010, and it wasn’t until at the latest November that they made enough changes to the game that it was at least playable, much less enjoyable. And bare in mind, MW2 was already out, and BC2 came out about a month after MAG. So it had STIFF competition. And again like Brink, there were people who cried foul, people who panned the game for not living up to it’s hype, and people who hated on it.(sound familiar?) But more then a year later, MAG is no where near the game it was at launch. They added two new modes, a number of new weapons and made all maps faction neutral (meaning that any faction can attack and defend on any map for the specific game mode). And there’s still a strong player base, despite the fact that the cycle of improvements and DLC has ended for the game.
So it’s not a matter of “if” SD could salvage Brink…because bare in mind…the game didn’t “tank” as some would believe. Brink is in no way a failure. It didn’t bomb. What it didn’t do…was live up to it’s hype. That’s the one thing about Brink that hurt it most. They gave us all kinds of info about what it’d be, and it wasn’t anything close to what was stated. They have fixed a number of issues, but there’s obviously a lot more that still needs addressing. It’s not a matter of “if” they can fix it, it’s “do they want to?” Because it can be fixed. Problem with that is it takes capital to do so. Capital that they didn’t exactly make a lot of BECAUSE they blundered so badly and a lot of people walked away from the mess because SD didn’t act quickly enough to clean it up. The only thing stopping them for making more then marginal fixes to the game is finance. And I do hope that problem is handled within the next 6 months. Like Rhado said, the ball is in Bethesda’s court if they want to shell out the coin for more content and improvements.
MAG is also for an already obscure niche without any competition. Dedicated fans of the genre will seek it out if it’s the best on offer. Brink on the other hand was aimed at casual gamers, so fumbling at the start is something you can’t afford. It’s running for a bus you already missed.
I would release another 2 map pack for free but financed by releasing a paid for DLC containing 2 more full outfits, 4 new ablilities and 2 new gun attachments and 2 gun skins and a free gaming weekend with the game cut to half the price it is now straight after.
Get the balance patch out of the way first.
Keep the game updated, keep the fans updated and slowly cut the price of the game with a virtual giveaway in the Christmas sale.
Keep churning out maps til the Ark is finished then pump out skins with a small crew keeping the game updated.
Keep Brink in the eye of the internet media with stories saying look at all the shiny in Brink naow!
Watch the slow money turn into a torrent, the players keep playing a game they have invested in and everyone wins.
Splash then buy out Bethseda and go onto world domination.
Whole wars are fought using only Brink and then a mad Texan sells everyone out to the Commie dogs (Robot Jox).
WOLVERINES!
They can save Brink with more clever marketing, streams of cheap DLC and such like that. It’s all a matter of Price vs. (Perceived) Value. Even if a product is considered a failure, if you market it well enough, you can easily turn it around. It’s marketing 101. I’ve seen worse products flipped. Brink isn’t lost.
Will it happen? If SD could help it, sure. But it’s not their choice anymore.
[QUOTE=L00fah;377087]They can save Brink with more clever marketing, streams of cheap DLC and such like that. It’s all a matter of Price vs. (Perceived) Value. Even if a product is considered a failure, if you market it well enough, you can easily turn it around. It’s marketing 101. I’ve seen worse products flipped. Brink isn’t lost.
Will it happen? If SD could help it, sure. But it’s not their choice anymore.[/QUOTE]
This. And possibly work in a Free 2 Play system.
At this point (talking from a PC perspective here) there are a handful of people left playing and people are not going to pick up the game unless it’s dirt cheap. Maybe give away the game and try make money on some new DLC map packs? Of course that’d mean spending more money on the project though.
Although I think it’s Bethesda that has moved on and not SD. I’m sure SD would love to turn the game into a hit but the money masters make the call.
All it needs is to bring more depth, take care of it’s issues, bring more content, convince Bethesda, spread the word that Brink is honestly great now, and then Brink will be a comeback success.
[PC] I don’t think it’s reasonable for people to pay full price for an online game without having a massive playerbase. Brink has to keep decreasing the price until the purchase rate starts leveling off or increasing. Maybe Brink ends up at a $5 or $10 price point for the rest of it’s life, we’ve seen phone apps have much success at lower prices, no?
The second thing that must happen is the release of map-making tools/SDK. It would be absolutely amazing if SD/Bethesda somehow embraced the map-making community, they could host a map repository, make it super easy to add/remove custom maps/mods in-game.
I think if these two things happen SD and Bethesda can concentrate on the next game while Brink expands it’s playerbase and still brings in some money by attracting new players with user created maps and a low price.
I obvs don’t know how Brink is selling now, maybe plenty of people are picking it up still? There may be contractual obligations to maintain a certain price for a certain amount of time so as to help shops not be undercut by Steam or other online distributors.
Anyway, I like Brink and hope it maintains some kind of playerbase so I will still be able to hop into a 16 player game. I also am excited to see what Splash Damage can come up with next.
PC:
:stroggbanana:I don’t think there is enough players left to buy enough DLC to fund 1 single map never mind 2 map packs. Also where does that initial DLC come from finance wise?
Another thinly-disguise hater thread. Strange that SD never shuts these down.
Cheers,
JJ
Another game that comes to mind that had a similar start like Brink and MAG was Unreal Tournament 3. Although it’s almost four years old now, to this day there is a small, yet consistant group of people (I being one of them) who still play the game regularly. What seemed to turn that from a mediocre to a pretty good game were a series of heavy-handed patches followed by the release of a free major DLC pack (the titan expansion)
[QUOTE=Jimmy James;377127]Another thinly-disguise hater thread. Strange that SD never shuts these down.
Cheers,
JJ[/QUOTE]
Why do you actually feel the need to come into this thread stating what you feel is the obvious? You think it’s cool or something?
I think there are some well constructed posts in here but thanks for trying to get fuel on the flames by baiting out for derailing this thread.
CHEERS,
C
Free Steam weekends for PC, not sure if doable on consoles, but free is the best known advertising