Neil Alphonso, lead designer at Splash Damage, readily admits that Brink could have undergone a better launch. "A lot of the game's complaints were entirely valid," he said.

"It was rough, but in the end the game's done alright," Alphonso told Joystiq, shortly after his GDC Europe presentation on the ambitious shooter's development. "Key is to keep supporting the game and keep tuning it more and more."

Asked if the company was going to try a "Welcome Back" weekend after months of patching, he expressed that the recent Brink DLC, which was free for the first two weeks, along with the game's weekend discount on Steam, shot "the [sales] numbers way, way up."

Alphonso said it's too early to discuss if the game will retain a significant portion of the new players. "We still have a lot of work to do, honestly," he said, noting improvements to the overall game and its supporting tech. "We have to support those people."