After launching their GTA styled MMO on June 29th of this year, Realtime Worlds are pulling the plug on APB. A troubled game from the onset and issues with management in the organization spelled an epic ending to a promising new development house. For some time now, APB’s head honcho had been trying to court a buyer for the company but failed to garner any lucrative attention. In light of this, it was officially announced on the APB website that they will be closing the doors and it is the “end of an era”.
An executive at Realtime Worlds, Begbies Traynor stated that of the 300 potential buyers and the six that were the most viable, none of them were interested in taking over a live operation. The IP as it had launched apparently was too far gone for another firm to rectify. All of the staff at Realtime World were given an update as to the situation, asked to part ways and knowledge that the APB servers could be shut down as early as tomorrow. These thoughts are partially confirmed with the abrupt removal of the game from Valve’s Steam service shortly after the news broke yesterday. Recent rumors however speculate that Epic Games may be a last minute contender to save the day for the troubled MMO.
APB launched to an overwhelming critical distaste with rampant problems and what seemed to be a not fully realized world. Reviews were harsh on the game and in the short two month stint, APB had only been able to garner some 130,000 regular subscribers.
When told the news to the employees of Realtime Worlds, a blog update on their site listed well-wishes from members of the development team.
“I truly wish we had the chance to continue to craft APB into the vision we had for it. It has been a long & difficult journey but ultimately rewarding to have had the chance to try something bold and different. APB holds some great memories, from the last night of the beta, to the clans and individuals who amazed us with their creativity and sense of community. I am so sorry it had to end so quickly but hopefully the good memories will stay with us all for a long time. Thanks to all the team for the years of hard work, and to the players who contributed so much,” said Dave Jones.
Bad game or not, it’s sad to see a promising developer close its doors so soon after the launch of a title. With the runaway success of Crackdown, it was a bold move to pour all of their resources into developing a new style of MMO to the masses. A move that ultimately lead to their demise. With the relatively poor reception of Crackdown 2 as well as APB, it seems that Realtime Worlds was delivered a one-two punch that they were not able to recover from.
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