When I first laid eyes on All Points Bulletin (APB) I thought it was the MMO of my dreams. “Grand Theft Auto Online?” I thought to myself, “you can’t get much better than that”. Unfortunately when the game actually did hit the streets it was met with less that positive reception across the board and eventually shut its doors for good.
Luckily, the game is getting a reboot from its new developers GamersFirst who will be releasing it as a free-to-play title. If you’ve been following the game you may know that a closed beta has been put out with registrations open for all. Things seem to be going quite nicely as GamersFirst has just come forth to say that there have been over 100,000 registrations for the game. Below is a quote from the studio:
“[The beta registrations] far exceed the number of people [we] actually expected or even needed for the first Closed Beta”
Of course, seeing how APB Reloaded will be a free-to-play game it’s almost a given that it will garner some public interest.
According to a report, an unannounced developer has acquired Realtime World’s “mmo” MyWorld, which the bankrupt developer worked on alongside APB, until it shut down. Realtime World’s is still trying to sell APB and the rest of its assets.
Yep, the rumors are true: after APB’s huge failure, developer Realtime Worlds has filed for “administration” in the UK, which is the same as Chapter 11 bankruptcy. All 200 employees’ jobs are in jeopardy, and the developer has brought in outside help to sell off its assets. Realtime Worlds spent years and over $50 million making APB, which is a surprise, considering how shallow the game was (besides the customization features).
If you weren’t lucky enough to get in on the All Points Bulletin beta don’t be discouraged — Word has just gotten out that Realtime Worlds has begun sending out yet another wave of APB beta invites. Of course, you’re not guaranteed an invite for doing anything but I’m sure heading over to their site, here, and signing up for the beta will help your chances.
Unfortunately, for those of you who just want the real game, Realtime Worlds has yet to give us word of a solid release date.
If you were one of the lucky people who got accepted in the All Points Bulletin beta you should be happy to hear that the beta will go live sometime next week.
News of this comes to us from Realtime Worlds CEO Gary Dale who took center stage during the Tech Media Invest conference to let us know of the beta’s next week appearance. Furthermore, he said that those who didn’t get accepted into the beta need not worry as Realtime Worlds plans on accepting more and more people as the game’s release date grows nearer.
Ever since Realtime Worlds announced All Points Bulletin it has been a highly sought after game with it’s GTA-like gameplay and MMO genre.
Well the developer has again stepped forward to speak of the game and this time about the subscription fees, a topic that has been under discussion for some time. David Jones of Realtime Worlds was quoted to have said the following:
“Basically, you have to buy the client. It’s a traditional game that you buy…We’re not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month’ route. What we haven’t said is which route we are going, and in some respects we’re still looking.”
Let’s hope that they really come up with something unique if you told World of Warcraft players they would have to pay an additional $15 a month to play APB, I don’t think they would be down.
Here’s something we let slip by from E3, All Points Bulletin‘s character creation tool which is showcased extensively in the above video.
Realtime Worlds really did a great job of giving players the ability to tweak and perfect their character any way they want. They also briefly showcased the ability to customize cars from their paintjob all the way to whats on the license plate.
If Realtime Worlds delivers with All Points Bulletin we may be looking at a hugely popular genre of MMOs. Unfortunately at this point all we have for a release date is Q1 2010, bummer.
It seems that a game studio founded by developers working on Fable II, Crackdown and GTA entitled Ruffian Games, has announced their expansion.
The infant game studio will expand their employee base by 15 but still are unable to let the world know what they are working on. Joystiq quoted Ruffian exec Gaz Liddion as saying “Now we’re in full production, we’re itching to share the fantastic work these guys have been producing,” going on to say that the announcement “won’t bee to far away”.
Hmm, I wonder what the project could be? Crackdown 2 anyone?
After Realtime Worlds got wind of the speculation surrounding their appearance at E3, they released the following statement to the APB Evolved community:
Hi everyone at APB-Evolved, we just wanted to quickly say thanks for all your patience recently whilst we’ve been quietly pushing forward with the development of APB.
We know this can be frustrating for fans, so to show our appreciation we have decided to inform you guys that yes we WILL be at E3 this year and this will mark the start of lots more news, activities and information coming out about APB: All Points Bulletin.
Here is a brand new screenshot made especially for you guys to give you another look at the awesome character customizations that will make up a large part of APB.
See you all at E3.
Realtime Worlds
So there you have it, Realtime Worlds will definitely be at E3 showcasing their upcoming MMO All Points Bulletin. Oh yeah, they also gave the community the above screenshot to show off the character customization, how kind of them.
Rumors have been circulating that Realtime Worlds, developers of the upcoming MMO action game APB, All Points Bulletin, would be showcased at E3, more specifically, the Microsoft Press Event. Eurogamer tried to get a comment on the story, but Realtime Worlds declined to comment. We’ll see at E3, as ABP has been in development for years now, and is, according to rumors, scheduled for release this year.
Realtime Worlds has previously developed the Xbox 360 open world action game Crackdown, which has since become somewhat of a cult-classic.
Rumors have been