APB comes to a 'premature end'

by David Hinkle on Sep 16th 2010 12:10PM

Realtime Worlds community officer Ben Bateman just popped on the APB official forums to present this sad bit of news: The game is shutting down for good. In his statement, Bateman says, "APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end."

Apparently the servers are still up for the time being, so if you've got the game, you're encouraged to hop in and pour one out for Realtime Worlds' gangsta-sim. We've just got one question: what happens to all of those "Realtime Points" consumers have purchased with their real-world money?

Source: APB forums

Tags: APB, ea, pc, realtime-worlds, Realtime-Worlds-Ltd., servers, shutdown

Reader Comments (72)

Welp....

It was a good run?

@LEGIONSINGULARGETHUNIT it was a run. It was real fun until you got destroyed by a hacker a few times. Then it started to suck and didn't get better.

@LEGIONSINGULARGETHUNIT

yea it was a good run though..i had lots of fun.

FOR EVERYONE...

http://www.xfire.com/profile/knightsray/screenshots/

APB screenshots I took just now in APB..alot of players on the server met up for a final photo shoot..enjoy

woah, didnt it just come out like couple of months ago?

@shadowhowl1900
I remember them showing it at PAX East, and I'm pretty sure that was before it came out. That was in March of this year (2010). So, yeah.. Wikipedia says: Release date (NA): June 29th, 2010.

I'm not too sad to hear of its demise. GTA+MMO=$$$(?) wasn't exactly the most original idea out there. Games with relatively high recurring costs are games that are designed to fail, IMO (with the exception of a notable few at any given time, e.g. EQ or WoW). The MMO revenue pie can only be cut into a couple slices.

Welp. A lot of people saw this coming. I really thought they'd go F2P first.

@wcanyon
i feel it may have been saved if they went to a free to play model with microtransaction support,,,

i myself would of bought the game if it f2p

Is anyone surprised by this? After countless press releases of the company laying off employees and declaring their equivalent of bankruptcy, I figured this was a long time comin'. Hate to say it. It's sad though.

@Schiller311
Pretty much. So many failed MMOs over the years, it's a wonder why small time studios still take the 4-5 year development risk.

Also 311 FTW.

Fastest launch to server shutdown in MMO history?

@Alexisonfire

*Has* to be...that was worse than Hellgate :p.

@ShadowXIII

Hellgate's servers were up for a good year and a half.

APB lasted 2 months.

@ShadowXIII hellgate even came back in other territories

I would be pissed, if I actually bought the game.

@N1Anon
I am pissed. I bought the game, and was waiting to 'spend' my in-game hours until after they fixed some of the launch issues and added in some of the features they promised. Now I get a coaster. Oh wait! I don't even get that, because I got the digitally distributed version. Maybe I can get Steam to credit my 'Wallet' with my refund?

It's a shame, if this was called "GTA Online," instead they'd all be rolling in dough right now.

@creid8 GTA online exists, it's called GTA4 :P

Wow....even Tabula Rasa lasted longer....

Damn.

Now you're thinking you should have stuck to Crackdown and done the second one.

@Edge of Blade I think that's what we're all thinking. What a shame.

@Edge of Blade MS didn't commission a sequel at the time, so Realtime Worlds had to move on to another project. Thats why they were peeved when MS finally did want a Crackdown 2 and ended up giving it to ex Ruffian employees.

Hence why Crackdown 2 had a limited dev cycle. Overall it was a lose-lose for all parties involved.

I hope Crackdown 2's mediocrity doesn't hurt the chances of a third Crackdown being made.

Actually I have only heard about this game as of right now. What exactly would you do in this game? Live a virtual "Thug Life"?

@Eroded Fallacy Think cops and robbers online and you're nearly there.

@Eroded Fallacy

why the downvotes? he's actually quite spot on. :/

wow id be pissed if i bought the game.... shit... maybe its my fault it shut down since i DIDNT buy it... aww man now i feel bad.

lol he said 'premature end'

They had a good run. I said GOOD, not LONG. But that was a really short-lived project. Oh well, here's hoping they can recover from this hit.

Crackdown 3 anybody?

:pours one for his online homies:

Damn that was hella quick yo

Wow that lasted like 5 seconds... Cant say i'll miss this pile of shit.

@Verb4tim 5 seconds is a pretty long time if you ask me

@Premature ejaculation man I see what you did there!

@Premature ejaculation man
Well played sir.. well played...

And here's my biggest problem with MMOs. Time and money invested is now worthless and unplayable.

Well, think about it, what did you take from those countless hours playing FFVII or CoD4 multi? Nothing other than the fun while playing and the friends you occasionally make in multiplayer. The game itself becomes worthless once you're done with it. It matters little if you're able to play it or not, because you just won't.

If one had a fun gang in APB, they're probably heading together to another MMO. That's how I started playing WoW and Aion got a good base right off the bat.

@KazamaSogetsu

At least with FF and CoD, you still have the game so you can go back and play again later, if you so desire. With a MMO, once you stop paying, you can't play. Once the servers go down, you can't play. I played EQ for about six years, and sometimes, I get the itch to play it again. But, there's no way I'm going to pay again. After all the subscription and expansion costs I've invested, it should be free to continue playing.

If it were free to play, maybe people would come back and even buy the expansions.

I suspected this would happen before the game even launched. Dunno why, just never felt this could flourish and rake in the mad dough.

I want my money back. I didn't even use all of my initial 50 hours.

@Deschain
Good luck getting money back from a bankrupt company.

@TachiFoxy

I'm more than willing to accept other forms of reimbursement.

@Deschain

I'm right with you. I haven't used any of my first 50, because I was waiting for a patch to fix some of the (many) things wrong at launch. I'm sure EA has enough money to reimburse us with something tho. I know I still want NHL 11...

Wow, i would feel used if i had spent money towards this game

Yeah, this situation is much better than Realtime Worlds doing the Crackdown sequel.

Never planned on playing it, but it makes me feel embarrassed/sad for Realtime. It makes me think of all the sinking ship studios I worked for in those two years directly after college, and all their crappy projects. If you facebook like this article, you are a jerk.

ahahahahahaha

Biggest flop ever? I got an APB shirt at E3, anyone want it for the low, low price of $100?!?!

Luke Halliwell has a worth-reading blog running conveying his perspective on the shit-show at RTW.

http://lukehalliwell.wordpress.com/

It's tempting to just read the cynicism and despair in the most recent entries, but I found it illuminating to read the oldest first. There's a real sense that there was once a genuine atmosphere of promise, success, and excitement.

What a shame.

pretty crappy, anyone want to take bets on if they yoink the source code and patch it up a little more and rerelease it under a new company?

@Daverator Thats what I'm hoping. Its like they just gave up without trying. The game is NOT dead, there is alot that can be done. hell, give it away for free and just have people buy points. to keep it living. id pay $5 a month... maybe.

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APB: All Points Bulletin

APB comes to a 'premature end'

Reader Comments (72)

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:15PM LEGIONSINGULARGETHUNIT said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:17PM wcanyon said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:29PM ILL Thief said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:15PM shadowhowl1900 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:05PM sigma8 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:15PM wcanyon said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:01PM Teus said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:16PM Schiller311 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 3:07PM Nexum said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:16PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:17PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:27PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 9:03PM Kougeru said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:17PM N1Anon said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 11:14PM ignisaer said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:17PM creid8 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:20PM jynxycat said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:17PM SteamPunkJin said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:18PM Edge of Blade said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:14PM MrWolf said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:58PM SkyMasterson said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:22PM Eroded Fallacy said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:22PM Mike DPad said

Posted: Sep 19th 2010 9:52AM Psychoplasm said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:23PM KiraXD said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:24PM Solace said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:26PM JinZX1 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:27PM E30 Kid said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:29PM Captain Planet Planeteer Power said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:32PM 343 Guilty Fart said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:37PM Verb4tim said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:45PM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:19PM MrWolf said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:34PM Verb4tim said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:38PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:33PM KazamaSogetsu said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:45PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:40PM gLitterbug said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:40PM Deschain said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:06PM TachiFoxy said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:28PM Deschain said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 11:22PM ignisaer said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:52PM spyder said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 12:53PM Altairio said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:03PM MLS said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:07PM Shiv Thrice said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:15PM Chilly P slapperonlyblogspotcom said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:18PM MrWolf said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:30PM Daverator said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 1:36PM RyogaVee said

APB: All Points Bulletin Info

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