APB dev Realtime Worlds restructures

By Robert Purchese Published 7 July, 2010

Second project "downscaled".

Scottish developer Realtime Worlds has announced it will restructure following the release of MMO APB.

Staff headcount will increase on APB in order to provide "total support", fresh content and aggressive marketing.

But there will be some redudancies, although these are linked to a mysterious second project that is being "downscaled" to accomodate APB's future.

New "post-launch" positions on APB are being advertised for. A Design Lead is asked to "review and drive improvement to overall game quality and structure".

Realtime Worlds' boss Gary Dale said APB received a "great reception from consumers", although some reviewers weren't as kind - Eurogamer scored APB 6/10.

"We now have to focus our efforts and resources on running APB as a 24/7 online live operation, creating new content and services for the future and ensuring the best possible experience for the players," Dale added.

Eurogamer spoke to Realtime Worlds' creative director Dave Jones about the APB reviews and much, much more.

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.

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

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Comments (13) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • mingster #1 2 years ago

    Great reception from consumers... hmm i don't tink so.

    Luckily hes not counting reviewers as consumers coz no one has scored it very highly and 1up gave it D (which equals 3 i think)
    And its got an average of 60% on metacritic which is pitiful.
    How they have the audacity to charge to play this POS i don't know.
    It should be free until its in a worthy enough state to charge a monthly fee.

  • FreakyZoid #2 2 years ago

    > New "post-launch" positions on APB are being advertised for

    That design lead position has been on their website for months, it is neither "new" or "post-launch".

  • mingster #3 2 years ago

    And really its not an MMO.
    Not any more than Monster Hunter 3 is an MMO or even MW2.

  • kiroquai #4 2 years ago

    I'm finding APB really, really odd. When playing on my own and hooking up with random folks I am really not enjoying it, but with a group of mates all hooked up to TeamSpeak it can be a great laugh.

    My complaints are pretty much the same as everyone elses' though: matchmaking is pretty broken, and there's a shocking lack of variety in the mission types.

  • Eraysor #5 2 years ago

    It's not an MMO at all; it's more like Guild Wars if anything, and that was both free and a much better game.

  • Snidesworth #6 2 years ago

    Realtime Worlds acknowledging that their game is shoddy and taking steps towards improving it? I hope so. There were a huge number of people looking forward to APB that were extremely disappointed with how it turned out.

  • viper_h #7 2 years ago

    I enjoy APB, but admit that it's really crappy when you're on your own or in a PUG.

    It needs loads more content and things to do, and I admit that it's not worth a monthly fee in its current state.

    Still a load of fun with mates though.

  • darleysam #8 2 years ago

    Well, the unemployed may want to hop over to Ruffian who can staff up for Crackdown 3, right?

  • dingo75 #9 2 years ago

    Around 4K population per server at US peak times doesn't bode well.

  • Whizzo #10 2 years ago

    Considering the amount of ads all over the web I don't think they need more aggressive marketing but a better game.

  • kiroquai #11 2 years ago

    @darleysam: Hopefully, yeah. At the end of the day, no matter how dim my view on the game, it's a shame some folks have lost their job because of the situation. Wish those affected all the best for the future.

  • lucifonz #12 2 years ago

    Good for them, focusing on improvements and new content for the game is definitely a good step to take. APB is actually good fun, no its not a total life timesink like your standard MMO's are expected to be, but its still alot of fun especially with mates.

  • Vin #13 2 years ago

    This could very well cripple them if APB isn't a success.