So, this is why Brink went free on Steam all of a sudden
After dropping to 99 cents in a sale, why not?
Earlier this week, Brink went out free — just, bammo, free game — on Steam. Now we know why.
“Like, why not?” Pete Hines, Bethesda’s vice president for marketing, told IGN at QuakeCon.
Fair enough! But that really is all there is to it. Hines told IGN that Brink had been cut to 99 cents in a recent sale and, at that point, why not just make the whole game free and maybe people will buy its DLC.
Even if not, “how much money are we really making off a 99 cents [sale]?” Hines added.
The appeal is more or less the same as Bethesda offering it for free via Games With Gold or PlayStation Plus. Those games don't necessarily have to be good or even recent for folks to gobble them up. Hey, free game! And indeed, Brink is clocking in at a level of peak concurrent players (on Steam) not seen since its 2011 launch.
Brink is not free on Xbox 360 (where it is $19.99) and it isn't even available on PlayStation Network. Who knows, maybe Bethesda will look at Games With Gold in the near future and say “Like, why not?" to that, too.
