What happened to Brink 2 and 3?

Two years ago, Splash Damage boasted about Brink being a "landmark franchise" for Bethesda that would stride on with Brink 2 and Brink 3.

"We already have big plans for that," an eager creative director Richard Ham spewed.

But now, months away from Brink's May arrival, Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood gives off an altogether different message.

"Right now we're just focused on Brink 1, on completing that game and finishing it and making sure we do a really good job of it," he told Eurogamer.

"I think there needs to be a public announcement," he retorted, when asked what would need to happen for a Brink sequel to be made.

Wedgwood went on, now more forthcoming: "If you have 80 staff, you've always got more games that you plan on working on, otherwise it would be a somewhat short lived... Some British game studios, maybe that is their only plan: make one game and quit. For Splash Damage, at the moment, we're really only prepared to talk about Brink 1."

Brink is an eye-feast of a shooter that hopes to imperceptibly intertwine single-player and multiplayer - a lofty goal backed by an incredible character customisation system, an objective-based teamwork system and a splash of parkour.

Two controlled, closed betas with 3000 players each have just finished on PS3. Brink is "very close" to being finished but there are still "a few weeks" before the game goes off to Microsoft and Sony for certification.

When can we expect the customary beta?

"Nothing to talk about at the moment," blanked Wedgwood.

Will there be one?

"Same answer. No matter how you ask that question, if there's nothing to talk about at the moment there's just nothing to talk about."

So is that a no?

"Well if there's nothing to talk about... Are you going to outsmart me with a question ha ha? There's really nothing to talk about at the moment. I mean, genuinely."

On PC, Brink will support dedicated servers. On console it won't - Gears of War 3 remains relatively unique in its decision to do so.

"No," reaffirmed Wedgwood. "There isn't really quite the need as there is on the PC. For consoles we get the performance that we need exactly bang on using a peer-to-peer network connection.

"The thing about console players is that in general they're not quite as familiar with their firewall settings and how to configure the networks. And that's not to stereotype," he added, "there are plenty of console guys who know how their routers work.

"But the console market, if supported correctly, should be plug and play. And to support that notion we use peer-to-peer networking with a quality of service protocol that determines who's got the best connection and it tries to establish that person as the server."

Brink, a handsome beast, runs on a modified version of id Tech 4. Apparently id Tech 5 "wasn't mature enough" three years ago, when Wedgwood wanted Brink multiplayer playable ASAP. But he admitted that, "If we were to start again today, we'd probably use id Tech 5." Handy now that id Software - the company Splash Damage formed around - is owned by Bethesda.

Incidentally, all three versions of Brink will be "exactly the same game", apart from the inherent graphics scalability of a PC title, plus the varying control methods of each machine.

What about future content - how's that going to be delivered and what sort of thing can we expect?

"Everything to do with DLC, Brink 2, plans for the future, demos, betas - just not talking about it at the moment," said Wedgwood. "It would be silly to because I couldn't make any commitment in any direction."

Eurogamer's still piping-hot hands-on impressions of Brink are best eye-eaten fresh, right now.

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