As far as rumors go, this one isn't much of a surprise. A mysterious masked man told Eurogamer that developer Realtime Worlds recently bought the distribution rights to its forthcoming MMO All Points Bulletin (APB to you kids) with one specific goal in mind: "so that it could try and sell it to Rockstar as GTA Online."

Now, Realtime's motivation for the purchase can really only be parsed two ways: either it's going to go it alone or it'll partner with "someone else who may well be interested and have the infrastructure [to support it]." Though the founders of Realtime Worlds used to call Rockstar Games "home" – not to mention the instant similarities between APB and the money-printing franchise – the developer is opting to downplay the GTA Online link, only saying that it re-secured the license to give itself "some options."
[Via X3F]

It always seemed to us that MMO-maker Webzen had a bit too much on its plate, what with working on APB, Huxley and Soul of the Ultimate Nation year after year with no signs of any actual releases. Well, Webzen's plate got a little less full today, as developer Realtime Worlds announced it has regained the global distribution rights to APB.

Realtime Worlds' announcement follows a an intriguing demo of APB at February's Game Developer's Conference and a $50 million cash infusion for the Crackdown developer in March. As for Webzen, maybe this disquisition will finally give it the focus it needs to finish up the long-dormant Huxley.

"The situation is that yes, all the consoles are an option for us, and we'll be looking at them, but there's nothing decided, nothing to report at the moment I'm afraid," said Realtime Worlds studio manager, Colin MacDonald. The only thing worth reporting then, as discovered by GamesIndustry.biz, is that the Crackdown developer has no concrete plans to bring its bandanna gangster MMO, All Points Bulletin ("APB" as it's known on the streets), to Sony's black behemoth.

It seems there was some jumping to incorrect conclusions after an article in the Scotsman suggested Realtime Worlds was looking to adapt APB "for games consoles such as XBox and PlayStation in the future." That's only partially true, as the game is currently bound for PC and Xbox 360. Still, there's loads of time between now and 2009, and plenty of ways to spend $50 million in funding.

Realtime Worlds, the developer best known for Crackdown, raised $50 million in its third round of financing. The company is currently at work on the MMO All Points Bulletin in conjunction with Korean company Webzen. Realtime Worlds CEO David Jones was a creator on the original Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings back in the day.

Although Crackdown was a great game, nobody is going to deny that the title did better because of its tie-in with the Halo 3 beta. APB should let us see how a Realtime Worlds title does without the assistance of Master Chief and the Halo army.

[Via GameDaily]

Sure, these past few days have seen a number of megaton announcements come from the Game Developers Conference, but nothing tickled our collective fancy quite like Realtime Worlds' Crackdown-turned-MMO, All Points Bulletin. The above trailer more than justifies our infatuation -- with Ronin-esque car chases instead of corpse runs, and assault rifles in lieu of broadswords, there may be no country for old MMOs once APB hits the unsuspecting online gaming market.

What word is perhaps most synonymous with the current MMO playing field? Grind. Realtime Worlds' Dave Jones (no relation?) is setting out to change that with the studio's first massively multiplayer title All Points Bulletin we caught wind of back in September. He's hoping the formula Crackdown + MMO = crack will be proven true with variables like infinite, professional-looking character and vehicle customization, contemporary setting, integration with last.fm and dynamic, variable team-sized missions hidden in the equation.

In today's innocuously-titled "My first MMO" panel at GDC, Jones revealed a number of details about those variables and showed off some gameplay and character customization demos that left a packed house audibly oohing and ahhing. Read on for a breakdown of the session and details on the game.

Turns out Endless Saga wasn't so endless after all, although the mystery surrounding the game's development certainly felt neverending. Webzen has pulled the plug on their Unreal 3-powered MMO, which had been scheduled to launch next year for the PlayStation 3 and PC. While this move thins out the PS3's initial MMO offerings, the Korean developer insists they are still committed to Sony's next gen platform. For now, however, Webzen will concentrate on finishing APB, Huxley and Soul of the Ultimate Nation -- the first two projects being Xbox 360 titles.

See also:

• Joystiq E3 hands on with Soul of the Ultimate Nation
• Joystiq E3 hands on with Huxley