Encourages fans to "join the party," though "wake" might be more appropriate.
Realtime Worlds' freefall after the June release of its MMO APB has been terrible to observe, and it appears as if the skeleton crew left in the studio after the reported mass layoffs won't even be able to keep the root of the studio's woes afloat long enough to recoup its costs. This afternoon, Realtime's Ben Bateman has announced the apparent immediate closure of APB via the game's official forums.
"APB has been a fantastic journey," he wrote, "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."
Bateman didn't get specific as to when the MMO's servers would be shut down, but his encouragement to "join the party and say goodbye" certainly suggests that the time to flick a switch is nigh.
As Joystiq points out, this sudden closure brings up a wee little issue for users who have money locked up in the MMO's zany Realtime Points system. Will they get refunds? Realtime didn't address this in the post that otherwise so graciously thanks its hardcore base for their devoted, but brief, support.
Game definately wasnt worth the monthley fee. Im not suprised at all. Its too bad for all those people who worked on the game. Only good games survive though APB was broken from what I saw.
This is a bummer. I was so excited for this game when it was first announced, but they abandoned the idea of "no subscription fees" and my computer wasn't good enough to run it, and now i'll never get a chance to experience. Bummer...
Who would pay for FPS? It's like they were completely unaware of the world around them. Like they haven't been paying attention to the fact that EVERY OTHER FPS IS FREE TO PLAY.
Compare this with the surprise success with Borderlands, which is basically a FPS+level grind. That sells a lot of DLC....and that's the model you have to take. Even the biggest names in FPS - Modern Warfare & Halo - don't go MMO.
And, finally, don't dare come in asking for money (that no one else gets) with a half baked product.
THAT IS FUNNY HAS HELL but its a shame i thought the beta was OK and i would get the game if you did not have to PAY to play and if you could get a top hat for 99p then i would have payed for some micro tranz actions
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