The service’s suite provides APIs that plug directly into gaming engines such as Unreal and Unity for Xbox 360, PS3, Windows, Mac, IOS, and Android.

“We believe players deserve a great online experience, reliability, performance, more content and connectivity,” said Stephen Gaffney, CEO of Fireteam. “Together, we’ve gained years of experience integrating online services into some of the worlds’ best-selling multiplayer games. We’re now really happy to be completely dedicated to building this as a service and platform.”

“As with many developers, at Splash Damage we often outsourced this component to a multitude of varying specialist providers, most of which have since been acquired. Now, with significant planning and research, we’ve launched this as a separate venture to Splash Damage. This specifically allows us to focus on improving the quality of online services,” said Arnout van Meer, Fireteam’s chief technical officer “Because we’re going to help improve how smoothly games are launched and operate, we’re pleased to be offering our services to Splash Damage as one of our first customers.”

The firm said it will give developers a “single solution to easily integrate” online features into games, including: matchmaking, transmedia connectivity across other devices, friends-features, player stats, and an in-game store. It operates on a “secure and scalable global platform” which retains each development’s community through a white-label service.

“We’re here to help publishers and developers add a rich suite of features that help attract, engage and retain players,” added Ben Hopkinson, director of operations, “And we know Publishers will love the increased revenue that is a direct result of increased player engagement; players get more content that they want, they invite more friends, and together they spend more on your games.”

Fireteam is also in the market for software engineers, front-end web designers, and a producer to strengthen its ranks. Click the link to apply.

This is the second hire announce in the past week from the Brink developer following the news it hired ex-FIFA director Griff Jenkins as its new director of production.

“We’re hugely impressed by Marc’s combination of insane technical ability and project management skills,” said studio boss Paul Wedgwood. “In particular its Marc’s obsession with fun gameplay and his personable nature that makes him the perfect person to lead our army of awesome programmers.”

Fascia will now become the studio’s new technical director, overseeing the upcoming projects SD has planned.

“I’m really happy to be trusted with this incredible responsibility at Splash Damage,” he said. “We’re working on some great things, and managing such a big and talented programming team, across multiple varied and challenging projects, is a wonderful opportunity. I love multiplayer and Splash Damage suits my passion perfectly.”

Wedgwood, head of the UK team behind Brink, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, said “2012 is going to be a very special year for Splash Damage. In fact, it’s going to be the most significant year in our history.”

He confirmed that news games will come from the studio this year, and that new releases will be geared towards “enormous changes” being experienced by the modern games industry.

“We’ve got several significant announcements to make in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

“We’ve hired some amazing new talent, strengthening our team in key areas. We’ll be revealing new titles – both on platforms we’ve previously visited (including the PC and the world’s leading consoles), as well as exploring spaces completely new to us. Finally, we’ve got some special things planned to take full advantage of the changes our industry is experiencing. This is a hugely exciting time for everyone here at the studio and we can’t wait to tell you about all the cool things we’ve got in store for you this year.”

Splash Damage’s latest release was Brink, shipped by Bethesda in 2011.

Wedgwood added: “In 2001 we went from a mod team to a professional developer. In the 10 years that followed, we became an AAA multi-platform developer, shipped three big multiplayer titles, worked on licensed properties and even created an original new universe. We’ve learned a lot from each of our games, and especially learned from the mistakes that we’ve made too.

“As gamers, we’ve also seen enormous changes in the past decade. We can now play multiplayer games online no matter what the platform is. Thanks to the wonders of digital distribution, we can buy games directly from their developers, and play them immediately. Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are more widespread than ever before, and these let us play wherever we are. More recently, the rise of good free-to-play games has allowed players to get their feet wet without demanding a big investment upfront.

“And, awesomely, despite an entire decade’s worth of premature obituaries, the PC as a gaming platform is looking healthier than ever. All of this is transforming the ways games are made, sold, and played.”

In a line-up usually dominated by US contributions, three games stand out. Brink ambitiously tackled the difficult task of presenting a balanced narrative in a game about oppositional forces, and was penned by the lovely Ed Stern of the UK’s own Splash Damage.

Another UK-grown favourite, Batman: Arkham City, scored a nomination for its fan-pleasing exploration of the DC Comics canon.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is another non-US entrant, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and closing the stories of two beloved protagonists ahead of Assassin’s Creed III.

This year’s WGA Awards take place on February 19 in Los Angeles. A full list of nominations and credits for the gaming category follows.

• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Story by Alexandre Amancio, Jean Guesdon, Corey May, Darby McDevitt; Multiplayer Story by Stéphane Blais, Richard Farrese, Jeffrey Yohalem; Lead Script Writer Darby McDevitt; Script Writers Richard Farrese, Nicholas Grimwood, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem; Greek and Turkish Ambient Dialogue Writer Vincenzo Beretta; Ubisoft
• Batman: Arkham City, Lead Narrative Designer Paul Crocker; Story Written by Paul Dini, Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill; Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Brink, Lead Writer Edward “Bongoboy” Stern; Bethesda Softworks
• Mortal Kombat, Story by John Vogel, Brian Chard, Dominic Cianciolo, Alexander Barrentine, Jon Greenberg; Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment

An IndustryGamers article today, penned by GamesIndustry editor Matt Martin as a spotlight on seven UK developers, said the project was based on “one of the biggest American pop culture brands of the last 50 years.”

It added that its online multiplayer tech was ready thanks to a “polished” version of the engine used to power Brink.

Instant chatter this morning suggested the game was a Marvel project being made for Disney.

But this afternoon, studio CEO Wedgwood has taken to Twitter to say the information in the piece was “inaccurate.”

“Fun watching Industry Gamers/Eurogamer post massively inaccurate stories, just because we refused to comment. And why should we?” he said in one tweet.

When asked further if the info was wrong, Wedgwood confirmed to VG247 via another tweet it was.

“We’re not working with Disney,” he said. “We’re not building a pop culture IP. We’re only using BRINK tech for BRINK updates at the moment.”

Splash Damage released Brink, a dystopian FPS published by Bethesda, back in May for PS3, 360 and PC.

“The one thing that we’re sure of is that multiplayer action is the thing that is in our hearts and stirs our souls,” CEO and co-founder Paul Wedgwood told the Telegraph as part of a studio profile.

“We believe that social interaction is the future of interactive entertainment. We know that playing against humans is more compelling than playing against AI. We’ll explore all of those different things and try everything.”

Beginning life as a group of modders for multiplayer shooters, S[plash Damage is understanably attached to the FPS genre – but that doesn’t necessarily rule out something different next time.

“Our next game always seems to be a multiplayer FPS. But every time we get to the end of a project we explore everything,” Wedgwood said.

“We would look at third-person stuff, more RPG-esque stuff, super realistic stuff, stylish.”

The full article, available through the link above, gives some insight into Splash Damage’s history, how it remains independent, and its studio culture.

Thanks, Videogamer.

The content contains weapons and outfits for you to sport, will run you around $2 each, and are basically skins, as they contain no bonuses to stats or anything.

The Doom/Psycho pack contains Doom styled shirts, tattoos, hats, and new revolver. It also has a silencer and a really creepy mask which looks like a demented potato sack. Then there’s the Fallout and SpecOps double-pack which contains military gear, more tattoos, and Fallout 3 weapon skins, even more tattoos, hats and shirts.

Both DLC packs were released via PSN yesterday in the UK and the day before in the US.

Head on over to Steam or Xbox Live to add the content to your queue.

Thanks, Shack.

Alphonso went on to say that their continued support of the title has caused sales numbers to improve post-launch. He said that all of the patching they’ve done, along with the free DLC they released boosted sales “way, way up.”

Speaking with Edge, Wedgwood said of the infamous period toward end of a development cycle: “There’s just no way of avoiding that; things just get forgotten,” he said. “We’re human, you know? We make mistakes.”

However, in comparison to comments made by Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter who said that bonuses offer compensation for the expected long hours, Wedgwood believes that crunch time should be planned for, and not taken for granted.

“Nailing the crunch problem is a real priority for Splash Damage, and getting to a point where, when we do overtime, it’s planned in advance and we’re able to compensate people appropriately for, in an ideal world, volunteering to do additional work. That’s the ultimate ideal goal.”

Crunch periods are not a new concept in the videogame industry, but the debate over them was reignited recently by ex-Team Bondi members who claimed that 100-hour working weeks during the development of LA Noire were common.

Its also said that the DLC will be free for two weeks once launched on all platforms: PC, 360 and PS3. The content is in submission with Microsoft and Sony now, according to Bethesda.

The content will include two new environments, five new player abilities, two new outfits and two new weapon attachments.

There’s screens of the pack below.

Starting today, players can track these stats along with match summaries along with a weekly meta-game between Security and Resistance called Battle for the Ark.

In addition to the statistics, the firm is planning updates over the summer which it says will help with setting up tournaments and clan recruitment. Apparently we are to “stay tuned” regarding the later.

To find out how to track your progress, head on over the the stat site.

The PC edition will come “very soon.”

Details on the Agents of Change DLC coming next month was also mentioned, and it will raise the player level cap to 24 as well as add new maps and abilities. There will also be new weapon attachments outfits added as well.

Head on over to the Bethesda Blog for the full rundown.

Thanks, Blue.

Xbox 360

• Completed modifications to improve network performance.
• Fix an isolated freezing issue reported by some German players who should no longer experience that problem once the update has been installed.

PC

• The cause of sound dropping out on certain maps when playing networked games for a prolonged amount of time has been identified. This will no longer occur.
• Graphical performance has been improved, especially when using Ambient Occlusion. Closely worked with both AMD and NVIDIA, folks should see performance and stability improvements in future driver revisions from both parties.
• The server browser is tweaked in this update, as well; among other things, a new filter allows you to display only servers with a certain number of players on them, and full servers will no longer be filtered out completely.
• There are some smaller fixes for minor issues including your character’s voice occasionally resetting when deleting another character, and a memory leak when alt-tabbing out of the game.
• The dedicated server is set to get an update at the same time as the main game, which will result in improved CPU performance. Certain cvars are protected that previously allowed server admins to accidentally break objectives involving NPCs.
• The full changelog will be released alongside the update.

PS3

• With PSN back online, multiplayer testing will resume. Changes in the upcoming Xbox 360 title update will be applied to the PS3 version quickly.

The patch is expected to go live for all versions next week. There’s more on this through the Besthesda Blog.

The retailer told the site that “no such deal” was “available” despite being reported this afternoon as well as earlier claims from consumers on Twitter claiming otherwise that it has advertised the offer of buying the Team Bondi title for £4.99 if you traded in UK number one Brink.

MCV claims that a publishing source has said the deal is now back on despite having been off at one point.

Game’s out in the US tomorrow and in the UK on Friday for PS3 and 360. Watch for the reviews from 5pm this evening.

Its overtaken Zumba Fitness to the top spot, which was last week’s number one. It’s now at three, with new entry LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean at two. Portal 2 and Black Ops round off the top five.

THQ’s MX vs ATV Alive entered into the bottom end of the top ten.

The Splash Damage shooter sold more on 360 with 69 percent of sales. The rest were on PS3 and PC with 23 percent and eight percent respectively.

Here’s the full top ten for the week ending May 14. Last week’s data is here.

1. Brink
2. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
3. Zumba Fitness
4. Portal 2
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops
6. Mortal Kombat
7. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
8. FIFA 11
9. Crysis 2
10. MX vs ATV Alive

In a post over on the the Bethesda blog, the firm note that to help reduce lag on the Xbox 360 version of the game, it has reduced the number of human players available when matchmaking for Campaign and most Freeplay modes from sixteen to eight players total. The change will allow those connecting and hosting matches to find and connect easier. The same configuration will be applied to the PS3 version when the PSN service comes back online.

Those who have not experienced lag issues, the firm will provide 8v8 on all maps via its new Big Teams configuration in Freeplay as well as through custom settings in Private matches.

The update does not require a download, and it will be available as soon as you log into Xbox Live and launch either campaign or standard Freeplay matches.

An incremental update for PC players which addresses AI, GPU, and server issues will be released on Stem as well, and you can look over the full patch notes here. Many of these fixes will also be included in the full update for consoles.

Splash Damage went on to say that the free DLC headed players way will be released in June, and includes additional maps and new content. The firm will release more information on the DLC as next month looms.

Thanks, Lolshock.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Wedgewood said he hopes players will take the time to learn the mechanics of the game instead of just enjoying it as a ” run-and-gun.”

“If we put you on a minecart and play the same cinematics, it would feel more like a traditional single-player game,” he said. “But, to me, the definition of single-player is simply a game that you can have fun playing on your own. It’s the important thing that defines single-player gaming. To be single-player doesn’t mean you have to look and feel and breathe like every other linear, single-player shooter.

“Now, the thing is, RPGs don’t feel like big action cinema, and yet people have really great fun playing them. RTSs don’t feel like action cinema, but they’re great fun to play on your own against the AI.”

Wedgewood feels that the shooter genre is viewed in a more restrictive manner, and that “third-person action adventures and shooters,” can become stuck in “the mold of constant constraint and removal of player interactivity.”

Because of this opinion, Splash Damage designed Brink around “interactivity and emergent gameplay,” instead of with “orchestrated, scripted, canned cinematics,” which cannot be changed and only played the same way over and over again.

“A better comparison is to think of something like a racing game,” Wedgewood explained. “With the racing genre, you can have great fun playing on your own, and you can have great fun playing against other people. Obviously, the story mode — the campaign mode — is a lot lighter than a traditional story-driven game. We try to be somewhere mid-point.”

You can read the excerpt from the full feature here, or the full thing through here.

Brink is out in the US now, hits the UK on Friday, as has had its latest update detailed along with plans for one in the near future.

• The evil mastermind behind Minecraft is toying with the idea of holding MinecraftCon.
• Hell of an Affair, the second L.A. Noire short story is out.
• Yakuza of the End screens are on the net showing men with blond, white, and gray hair.
• Jagex’s headed to Brighton in the hopes it can nab some Black Rock Studio staff after the Disney lay offs.
• The US Navy is launching an MMO which focuses on sea-pirate strategies. Yar, etc.
• A preview for Operation Raccoon City is up.
• You can get the digital soundtrack to Shadows of the Damned if you pre-order through select retailers.
• Nival Interactive’s bringing Prime World to North America and Europe from Russia. It’s a fantasy-themed social strategy game with cross-platform support for Windows, OS X, Facebook, iOS, and Android.
• Someone has unlocked the “Impossible” Achievement in Super Meat Boy.
• Paradox has released a developer diary for Crusader Kings II.
• Global Agenda got a new patch today.
• Some art and how it pertains to Brink is through here.
• Hideki Sakamoto has won a Guinness Award for “longest piece of original music scored for a videogame”, with Prime #4507 from Echochrome II.

According to the post, written by co-founder Paul Wedgewood, on the Xbox 360 end, a game update went live at launch which addressed “several of the issues raised in some of the early US reviews of the game,” and it also included some “major improvements,” such as significantly reduced texture loading times which were fixed via hard-drive caching.

“It also improves client prediction when playing online – in other words, you’ll experience much less ‘rubber banding’ in multiplayer,” said Wedgewood. “We’ve also fixed several issues that could lead to the game freezing, and resolved an issue where Brink would insist on playing all of the training videos rather than just the introductory one.

“We’ve also been getting new reports of lag when playing online, especially in matches with lots of human players. We’re all huge multiplayer fans here at the office and we know how important a lag-free online experience is. We’re urgently investigating this issue and seeing what we can do to improve things in that area. Stay tuned.”

To apply the update if you haven’t already, just restart the game while your 360 is connected to the internet.

An update to the PS3 version was also released on Monday, which incorporated the same fixes for the Xbox 360 version. In addition, host migration has also seen “several improvements,” as well, and an issue where the Ability Wheel sometimes displayed the wrong class abilities was also taken car of.

This update also fixes several potential freezes now only plays the introductory tutorial video at the initial prompt, rather than all of them like with the Xbox 360 fix..

“Even though PSN is currently offline, you’ll still be able to get this update if your console is connected to the internet,” said Wedgewood. “Once PSN is back online, we’ll closely monitor player feedback for this platform.”

On the PC side, a game update is on its way to Steam which will be bringing two immediate improvements.

“It greatly enhances the crash reports we’re getting through Steam, with more detailed information coming our way from now on,” he said. “While this doesn’t sound very exciting for you as a player, it’s really useful for the Brink team as it’ll allow us to track down the underlying issues much more quickly and work on fixes for them – particularly stability issues relating to compatibility.

“This update also fixes an issue where closing the game before getting to the character selection screen can corrupt your character data and make it unusable. Until the game update comes out, we strongly recommend not shutting Brink down during start-up to avoid this issue altogether.”

In other PC news, the brink team is working with Bethesda to “solve any hardware compatibility issues that people have been reporting,” especially with AMD card owners. Wedgewood suggests you first of all make sure you have the most current driver update, which should “solve a fair few of the visual and performance issues out there.”

The same goes for those running an Nvidia card.

“The next game update for the PC version is already in the works, and includes a fix for the FOV issue some of you have been reporting on the forums, among several other things,” added Wedgewood. “We’ll have more information to share on that soon.”

More details regarding the Brink statistics VIP code included with copies of the game will be announced soon, and when the statistic site launches here, players will be able to register a profile and use the VIP code to link your Gamertag, PSN ID, and Steam ID.

Brink was released yesterday in the US and is out Friday in the UK.

The Splash Damage shooter ships in the US today and releases in Europe this week. As ever, stick any scores you have in the comments and we’ll post them up for you.

• Joystiq – 2/5
• IGN – 6/10
• Eurogamer – 8/10
• 1UP – D
• Destructoid – 7.5/10
• Gaming Today – 88%
• JPS – 3/5
• GamesRadar – 8/10
• CVG – 8/10
• ArsTechnica – Refused to review it
• gamrReview – 8.2/10
• The Guardian – 4/5
• TSA – 9/10
• Videogamer – 8/10
• Game Informer – Refused to review it
• VaDeJuegos (Spanish) – 8.5/10
• GamersGlobal – 9/10
• SpielTipps – 88 percent
• Giga – 87 percent
• Gamona – 87 percent
• MSN UK – 8/10
• X360A – 8/10
• 3djueogos – 81 percent
• GamersNet.nl – 89 percent
• OnlyGaming – 8/10
• XboxGameZone – N/A

Watch the launch trailer for it here and read our launch interview with Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood here.

Hilariously, we are on the ‘Brink.’ After a couple of delays from the shooter’s original spring 2010 release date, Splash Damage’s Brink finally releases this week. The game is the London-based developer’s first truly original IP, following Enemy Territory releases for id FPSes Wolfenstein and Quake Wars.

In such virgin territory with a new IP – which was supposed to be going up against The Witcher II and Rockstar’s LA Noire until the release date was pushed forward recently – you’d think Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood would be worried. Not a chance.

“Everything that we’re playing right now that people really enjoy playing – Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, Left 4 Dead – these were all new IPs less than three years ago, so it really isn’t something that bothers me greatly at all,” Wedgwood tells VG247.

“And in that same period you’re talking about, we’ve also had Bulletstorm come out. So I don’t think it’s really an issue for us.

“We’ve got a great publisher that knows how to handle new intellectual property.”

Brink will be Splash Damage’s first foray into a single-player experience, having focused on multiplayer in the past with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Quake Wars. But to work on a story the studio needed to develop new tech, such as squad AI. Wedgwood motions through the window of the Utah press event’s hotel, and jokes about expecting a squad of skiers to attack the building.

“They wouldn’t politely go via reception and come up the stairs and all come through the front door because that’s the direction I’m looking in at the moment. They would come in through the window, through the door, through next door’s balcony. They’d out flank us. That’s the kind of stuff they’d do,” he says.

“While it’s very difficult for a traditional developer of single-player linear shooters to add multiplayer to their game, for us, it’s actually incredibly easy to add story to good multiplayer.”

“One of the big goals with Brink, in addition to the story, was to create autonomous AI that does think for itself, that makes decisions based on the same mission system that you use, whose shopping list for abilities, items, tools and gadgets is the same shopping list that you have. When you get access to big body types, they start turning up with big body types with huge mini-guns and everything else. They level with you alongside.

“The story side is actually quite an interesting one, because while it’s very difficult for a traditional developer of single-player linear shooters to add multiplayer to their game, for us, it’s actually incredibly easy to add story to good multiplayer.”

Brink is also Splash Damage’s first dip into the waters of console development; it handed off work on the PS3 and 360 versions of Quake Wars to Nerve Software and Underground Development while it constructed the PC version. Needless to say, the switch to multi-plat was difficult, but Wedgwood maintained a “platform agnostic” ethos on Brink, no matter how different development styles were for 360 and the “alien” PS3.

“The truth of it is the Xbox 360 is quite similar to a PC in terms of architecture,” he says.

“Certainly, there are things that it does better and there are things that it does worse. But in terms of developing a game for it, setting aside the needs for certification when you actually get the game ready for release, it’s largely a similar-ish experience.

“The PlayStation 3, for us, was just alien technology. Take the cover off and its probably organic. We decided from the beginning we’d get the PC up and running as quickly as possible for gameplay testing. Within about three months of starting we were playing multiplayer games, just deathmatch with the initial weapon loadout. Then we started playing with the basic first couple of objectives. Then as SMART came in, we started playing with the basic vaulting, mantling, sliding under things and leaning around corners.

“Sometimes, we would play with a 360 controller connected to PC. Other times we would play with mouse and keyboard, just depending on what we felt like. But we had this very definite vision from the beginning that we would be platform agnostic.”

Not everyone’s a console player. The PC hardcore are keen on the game – which comes from a developer with roots deep in the desktop – but you’re not going to be needing Crysis-like rig for Brink. Wedgwood says he’s pretty comfortable with the PC version’s spec requirements.

“I think there are certain technology advances that we’ve made with the game’s engine itself that require a certain specification of graphics card, processor or amount of memory. And that kind of thing is largely unavoidable,” he said.

“We were, I think, very responsible with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for the PC, to make sure the spec had barely moved on from the Quake 4 minimum system spec from two or three years before.

“Obviously, with Brink, it has a higher system requirement. Its not id Tech 4; it’s moved on by three years and the stuff we’re doing graphically with visual fidelity, with gameplay fidelity, with networking, those things wouldn’t have worked on that previous platforms of PCs. But I am pretty comfortable with the spec that we’ve ended up selecting.”

Technicalities aside, though, gameplay will determine Brink’s fate. The shooter stinks of teamplay thanks to Splash Damage’s history. Wedgwood insists co-operation is primary driver for Brink, comparing it to something that he says he’s not even “remotely” a fan of: good ol’ football.

“Think about football. Fundamentally, there shouldn’t be any really difference between the game you play in the car-park next to your house with your mates – jumpers for goalposts – and the game that takes place in a stadium,” he says.

“At times, depending on your age, the car park thing can be really immersive. You can forgive the scraped knees and everything else. When you’re older, the stadium thing becomes the really immersive idea. But the basic thing that makes it fun is just the ruleset, and the football, and the physics of the football and the physics of the players and their abilities and their realistic constraints.

“Brink is a game that is more like chess than it is like drafts, which is a reasonable thing to say about the game if you’re to compare it with other shooters. In doing so, its really taking the FPS genre closer to that kind of stadium feel.

“Football is a complex game. It has a complex set of rules, with many people still failing to understand the offside rule. But when you see a crowd of spectators react to footballers in such a tribal way, you realise that same buzz of satisfaction that we got as clan players in 1997, 1998 and 1999 when we were playing Quake 1: Team Fortress, when we were playing in opposing clans, that buzz that you got when you worked out all your plays before you went online and then that plan that came together, it was just absolutely breathtaking.”

Its something that Wedgwood has seen in events all around the world, from PAX and QuakeCon to Eurogamer Expo and gamescom.

“In almost every single game they played, in the final minute of the game they were on the final objective and it went one way or the other, based on who took the sample at Container City. This is 16 strangers coordinating together to complete a list of incredibly complex tactical goals that would have taken us as a clan three days of planning to figure out. And yet, here we are with 16 strangers with VOIP turned off, relying only on our automated communications system in the game, and we had them cheering at the end of matches.

“And they’re not cheering because our game is brilliant; they’re cheering the experience of collaborating with each other. I think that’s brilliant.”

For a new IP like Brink, you would think that an open beta would be needed to gauge reaction. Not quite. Splash Damage held a secretive beta test known as “Project Ishmael” on PSN so it could fine-tune the game and balance out any issues. Wedgwood says the beta didn’t go open because because it was just that: a beta.

“There was a fine amount of testing we needed to do at the time, which was quite specific to balance. We were able to get 3,000 people through the closed beta,” he says.

“Through the closed beta, we could send out a version of the game where it wasn’t a demo, and it wasn’t going to be considered a demo. It wouldn’t be judged as being, ‘Hey, this is what the game’s going to be like when it’s released.’

“In a public beta, people would think we were idiots for some of the things we tried. And its good to know with a closed beta test that these people have signed up through PSN specifically to have the experience of trying out beta games, and they know what exactly they’re getting themselves into, that whatever we send them may unexpectedly turn their console off.”

After testing and several delays, Brink’s out tomorrow in the US. Where does Splash Damage go from here? Brink DLC? Wedgwood wouldn’t comment, insisting that any DLC details will be dropped by Bethesda “when the time is right.”

But what’s beyond Brink itself?

“As a company, we used to just have a single team all the time. About a year ago, we started having a pre-production team as well, just to throw crazy ideas around, work on something for three months and then do something else,” says Wedgwood.

“And those guys are still doing their thing and having fun, but the focus of the Brink team is exclusively on Brink and it’s the only thing we’re doing. Until that’s kind of done and we’re happy and everything, we’re just not ready to talk about anything else at this point.”

Brink releases tomorrow in the US and Friday in the UK for PS3, 360 and PC.