APB Shutting Down
by VGChartz Staff, posted on 16 September 2010 / 1,919 Views
Despite my slobbery blowjob of a preview and the wonderful time I had at E3 with APB, the "GTA MMO," the game ended up sucking. Then, in August, developer Realtime Worlds went bankrupt. Now, APB's servers are closing down for good, leaving nothing left for the dozens of gamers that plopped down $50 for this gloriously failed experiment, full of incredible ideas and terrible implementation.
From the APB forums:
APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It's been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome!
From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support.
The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye!
- Ben 'APBMonkey' Bateman (Community Officer)
Good luck to all the people who were working on the game. Hopefully some of APB's more innovative ideas will stick, and we can see its influence - in character creators and customizability, especially - for years to come.
UPDATE: According to Develop, the IP rights to APB are still up in the air. While Realtime Worlds was originally trying to sell both the game and the company as a package to investors, it has since been decided to split the game from the developer. So, the studio will close, but APB itself still has potential to live on under a different umbrella if another company is interested.
