Well this is a first. In an industry when delays are not just common, but can actually be welcome if it means the difference in a rushed and broken game or a masterpiece, the upcoming first-person shooter Brink will actually be released a week before it was scheduled. It is far from being the first game to release early, but it is among the biggest budget games to release early, and it still bucks the trend.
“Production wrapped on Brink earlier than we planned and we didn’t see any reason to keep gamers from getting their hands on this highly anticipated game as soon as it was ready,” said Pete Hines, VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks said in a press release. “It’s apparent from the tremendous reaction so far that people are eager to jump online and play, and if we can make that happen earlier – we’re going to.”
Originally scheduled for a Late 2010 release, Brink was pushed back to Spring 2011 to give the developers more time to polish he game (and possibly to avoid releasing another FPS on what was something of a murderers row of FPS games, including the record setting Call of Duty: Black Ops). Hearing that a game is delayed is never a good thing, but rather that then have a game released that the developers know to be filled with glitches.
Even with delays—or extensions based on your point of view—the development of a game is typically something that comes down to the last minute, with thousands of Red Bulls sacrificing their lives at the altar of video game glory. With Brink, it seems like they are just kinda…done. The game has been completed, and the manufacturing, community building and marketing for the game can now begin in full swing, while developers return home to their long forgotten loved ones and try to reintegrate themselves into society after spending months—even years—consumed by the game they worked on.
As for the game, Brink is the story of the last remaining trace of civilization on an Earth that has been swallowed by water. The last city on the planet, the Ark, was meant to sustain 5,000 people indefinitely. With more than 50,000 people fighting for the remaining resources, the last vestiges of humanity are on the brink of a final and catastrophic civil war.
Brink will now be released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 10.
