RTW demise blamed on "lacklustre" APB

By Robert Purchese Published 18 August, 2010

But there's "positive interest" - administrator.

"Business rescue and restructuring" outfit Begbies Traynor has cited "lacklustre demand" for APB as the reason Realtime Worlds fell apart.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz after a statement was issued, the company said there had been "positive interest" in APB from potential buyers. Begbies Traynor hopes the new owner will "continue to develop" the game.

"We are currently involved in a consultative process with the 200 staff employed in Dundee. Our intention is to continue trading the company while we attempt to find a going concern buyer which will safeguard the future of the business," the company said in its statement.

News of Realtime Worlds' collapse broke yesterday.

Before APB, Realtime Worlds was responsible for Microsoft's breakout Xbox 360 hit, Crackdown.

APB, an ambitious cops and robbers MMO, was released in July. But despite hefty anticipation, Eurogamer awarded only a respectable 6/10 to the game. Realtime Worlds boss Dave Jones defended APB soon after to Eurogamer, presenting a long-term vision for his creation. What he'll do now, we'll have to wait and find out.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bemaniac #1 2 years ago

    the apb forums are miserable to look at seriously have a look. I just wish they could make the game run awsome with AA on but they can't even on crossfire 5970s and a pair of the latest xeons because theres is flaws in it.

  • MiniAmin #2 2 years ago

    Like many others, I wish they'd made Crackdown 2. I mean they could've incorporated some aspects of APB in Crackdown 2's multi-player. I think they were unprepared with APB and the pricing model wasn't as "innovative" as they'd hoped.

    Despite these mistakes, it's always a shame when people lose their jobs, especially as the UK industry is losing is competitiveness.

  • hello_fi #3 2 years ago

    Should have released it on consoles rather than a dead format.

  • gnrlstuart #4 2 years ago

    long term visions are all well and good. but building a house on sand is never a good way to launch an mmo. would you buy any game if it was a bug ridden mess. with broken matchmaking, lack of content. but promised to support it? no. you probably wouldn't.

  • Dolly #5 2 years ago

    The sad truth is, even those who were adopting a 'wait and see' approach with this game up won't touch it with a bargepole now. Game over man, game over.

  • Vermillion3000 #6 2 years ago

    Whenever I saw the term "pay by the hour" I thought WTF!!!
    When someone who had played the game explained the actual system - you buy X hours in bulk and use them whenever is convenient to you - I thought "Oh! That sounds sensible!"

    Poor PR phrasing seems to have played a role in their demise...

  • SAMagic #7 2 years ago

    Please insert more coins to continue.

  • Ryboy #8 2 years ago

    "But there's "positive interest" - administrator."

    Really?

  • Quint2020 #9 2 years ago

    Looks like the guys over at Ruffian had the right idea when they jumped ship.

  • TeaFiend #10 2 years ago

    @MiniAmin:
    Ruffian was mostly the same team who did Crackdown 1 :]

  • flaming.carrot #11 2 years ago

    Shame. I liked 'blood money' and 'menace' too.

  • Lexx87 #12 2 years ago

    I still don't get why an MMO? Unless it is better than heaven itself you won't get the demand surely with what is already available.

  • MiniAmin #13 2 years ago

    @TeaFiend

    You're quite right. But Crackdown 2s uninspired gameplay would suggest otherwise. Don't get me wrong, it's a really fun game, and in co-op it's ridiculously fun, but it definitely feels like a title which was made by a different team.

    Even if they retained people from the same team, it doesn't necessarily mean that they emulated the same management style/ethos which made the first Crackdown the breakthrough success it was.

  • CaptainKid #14 2 years ago

    Glad I didn't buy in to this fiasco.

  • JahB #15 2 years ago

    Should have released it on consoles rather than a dead format.

    yeah, like Starcraft. I'm sure the guys at Blizz are furious with themselves for shipping this to a dead platform and not selling any.

  • Nephirion #16 2 years ago

    APB was a poor game gimped from poor design and production decisions the format is irellevant.

  • JayG #17 2 years ago

    While PC is far from dead, i do wonder if it would have been more successful as a console game. Not a lot of MMO's, and GTA and Crackdown are basically console orientated. ( I know GTA started on pc, then so did Alan Wake and Halo) Seem's a shame to lose a talented developer like this.

  • Matfink #18 2 years ago

    @ClubHeaven: unfortunately a whole game studio can be at the mercy of a few average designers.

  • iamian #19 2 years ago

    Personally I would wonder if this story is why APB turned out the way it did. If the company was close to administration anyway then maybe releasing the game in it's current state was the only option?

  • SAMagic #20 2 years ago

    Anyone who thinks it's a dying format should read this:
    [link url=http://news.filefront.com/report-shows-annual-pc-hardware-sales-doubling-console-sales/
    ]http://news.filefront.com/report-shows-a...[/link]

    Or just look at the 11 million people playing WOW (Though that may prove impractical so you may want to take my word for it).

  • Zaiz #21 2 years ago

    Yeah, about the launching with tons of bugs comment. WoW was designed to be a relatively niche title, so servers imploded(as blizzard wondered why so many people bought their game) and nothing really held up to the amount of players they had. On the other hand, Guild Wars to my knowledge went off without a hitch, and it certainly didn't roflstomp WoW.

    Bad PR played more into APB's death than anything else, I'd bet. More people learn about games through games journalism than people think. I personally tell 4-5 people who don't read Eurogamer what's happening with games, I also told them that APB was pretty awful even though it was kinda awesome.

  • hiddenranbir #22 2 years ago

    Games with such high spec requirements, as if it could get enough people. :\

  • BoffBoff #23 2 years ago

    This is the first I've heard about RTW's problems. So are they going/have they gone under?

    Gutted for them to be honest. I remember when APB was first announced and hoping it was going to be as amazing as they promised. I was really excited for it, especially on the back of Crackdown. Then heard it was an MMO... Then heard it was PC only... (Not bashing the PC - I make a living out of them - but prefer my gaming on the console.)

  • cairbre1977 #24 2 years ago

    I bought APB played it once or twice and have never gone back to it. Guess my forty hours of gamplay are about to go up in smoke.

    €50 down the tubes is alot better than the misery and worry that those poor people who have lost their jobs are going to have to go through.

  • Kilroy #25 2 years ago

    I must admit I was kinda looking forward to it, when it was still headed for Xbox 360.
    But between the subscribtion model, the high specs and so on, I quickly lost interest.
    I'm sad for the guys working there, though.

  • McShifty #26 2 years ago

    It's sad to see such talented people losing their jobs but I think it's simply a case of a developer biting off more than it could chew, which (as always) is down to poor leadership and management.

    I wonder how many of the staff will now go on to work for more modest companies making games for iPhone and the like?

  • Trikk #27 2 years ago

    The idea worked for blizzard :p When wow was released it was a bit buggy, they had content but lots of stuff not in place yet and there was a promise to add it (which they did but took em a few years), balancing issues and the like.

    The key here is how much content there was. WoW had tons of content at release, interesting world PvP and was extremely polished. APB doesn't even have a tenth of what WoW had. Yet they expect to charge the same for their product. This is the problem with the rampant greed we are seeing in online-only games right now. They offer nothing to very little and price it the same or higher than titles like WoW.

    Of course, the way WoW developed left original players like me disappointed and I'm sure there's a huge untapped market out there. That doesn't mean that I will just play anything as long as it's online. APB lacked polish, content and was "lacklustre" at its core. 80 players, 2 maps, largest match possible being 20v20? Sorry, you're not offering anything I care about, like a persistent world, epic battles or even decent combat.

    It's the RPG part that makes online games interesting, even if they aren't traditional RPG in terms of game mechanics. The game becomes so much more interesting if you actually feel like you are playing a unique character in the world. If I want to just shoot shit without consequences I can always play Battlefield, Counter-Strike, Quake, etc, and get a much better experience than any centrally hosted game will offer.

  • hobojebus #28 2 years ago

    To be fair they cranked out crackdown2 in about 9 months Microsoft didnt give them much time, i still enjoyed it.