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In their latest monthly newsletter, Real Time Worlds walks us through some of the design decisions they've been making for their lawless, shooting massively multiplayer online game APB.
Also in Realtime Worlds' newsletter for fans, which went out this week, is word that Facebook will play a large role in building the community for APB, the long-awaited cops-and-robbers MMO.
And APB's closed beta stage is upcoming, with alpha testing completed in the middle of September, says Realtime Worlds. "Initially this will be a very core, select number of trusted friends of employees, but does mark the start of what can be considered the 'Closed' Beta stage of APB," said Chris Dye, community relations manager.
There were no specifics given on exactly how Facebook will be a part of this. Develop Magazine points out that APB will use social music site Last.fm for its in-game audio, Realtime Worlds has shown a willingness to use existing online services rather than create its own.
The release date is still TBA.
Gamers who take on the roll of Enforcers in Real Time World's upcoming cops versus bangers MMO APB will be able to arrest their foes, the developers said today.
"Enforcers have an arrest system available to them which serves to take out a criminal player until they are freed or the arrest timer expires and they must respawn as if killed. This can reduce the criminal force for longer periods of time than killing them would unless freed by their criminal group-mates."
The developer is also working on ways of implementing stealth into missions. Real Time Worlds also said that they've decided not to include playable classes in their game, instead a player's class will be defined by their play style.
The information comes as part of the developers monthly newsletter. In it Real Time Worlds say that they are moving into the final phase of internal alpha testing with regular play tests of more than 100 employees.
Realtime Worlds free-ranging, open-world crime MMO All Points Bulletin is shaping up nicely, Realtime Worlds tells us today in an email.
The games testing has "advanced to a very exciting stage internally" and the developers are preparing the initial steps for beta. What's that mean? Why Realtime is opening a Facebook page of course, what else? The Register Your Interest sign up page will let you sign up for email updates, not the beta, but in theory that will be coming down the line sometime too.
So if the game is moving along so swimmingly, why no appearance at E3 this year?
Tony Harman, president of Realtime Worlds, has the spin. Hint, it involves $US 50 million.
"This year we would have had an exciting presence with APB at E3 if we had continued with Webzen as our publisher. But, given that we re-acquired the rights to APB just this spring and closed a very large fundraising round ($US 50,000,000) to secure APB's future, the timing just wasn't right to attend E3. RTW is very excited with APB's progress and we have used our fundraising as a means to invest even more heavily in the APB development team. RTW hopes to release more information later this year with regards to game play details and beta plans."
Crackdown fans, all hope is not lost. You do have a reason to get out of bed, clear the room of Taco Bell wrappers, put on a smile and face the world. Crackdown 2? It could still happen, says Colin Macdonald of Realtime Worlds. Sure, the team is neck deep in APB development — which looks completely awesome — but, should the stars align, high jumping supercops may be in your future.
Calling the choice to not immediately begin work on a sequel "a horrible, horrible decision that we still dwell on", Macdonald tells VG247 that "I don't think the door's closed" on a sequel. Sounds like RTW is still willing, and able, to take another crack at Crackdown, should Microsoft call upon them. And they may, one day.
Crackdown 2: "The door's not closed," says Realtime Worlds [VG247]
After Realtime Worlds' appetite-whetting unveiling of its upcoming cops-n'-jerkbags MMO APB (All Points Bulletin), it'd be a little disappointing if it turned out that all we were being promised was sanitised "comic mischief". But no — Realtime Worlds fully expects to earn its M rating.
Realtime Worlds president Tony Harman (who recently told us why we didn't see APB at E3) had a chat with Gamespot:
Realtime Worlds president Tony Harmon told GameSpot today that he's expecting his modern-day cops-and-robbers game APB to land an M from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Though the game has no release date yet, the developer is planning to submit it to the ratings process next year.
The concept art in this post is cool, huh? Move over, six-fingered Lollipop Girl?
APB gunning for an M [Gamespot]
Put these pieces together. Realtime Worlds made Crackdown. Realtime Worlds are now at work on an MMO called APB, which is not entirely dissimilar to Grand Theft Auto. Realtime Worlds were founded by David Jones, who created Lemmings. Oh, and Grand Theft Auto. Last month, Realtime Worlds bought back the rights to APB from Korean company Webzen, who were originally scheduled to publish the game. Why the buyback? Eurogamer are reporting that, according to "a credible industry source", it was so they could turn around and sell the game to Rockstar, who could then rebadge it as a GTA MMO. Realtime are keeping quiet on the rumours, saying only that they bought back the rights to their game to "give themselves some options".
Realtime downplays GTA Online talk [Eurogamer]
And by "the Koreans" we mean the fine folks at publishing outfit Webzen, which until now was the planned publisher of Realtime Worlds' cops and robbers MMO APB, planned for a PC (and possible PlayStation 3 and almost definite Xbox 360) release. You may recall that the Crackdown developer was on the receiving end of a $US50 million cash infusion, the majority of it we assume was spent on frozen haggis, but which some was surely earmarked to get the game out of hock from the Korean distributor.
Realtime Worlds' Grand Theft Autoesque MMO APB (All Points Bulletin) has already been announced to be in development for both the Xbox 360 and PC. But with $US 50 million in their pocket, Realtime Worlds is considering all of their options. And that includes Sony's PlayStation 3. Studio Manager Colin MacDonald explained:
Crackdown devs Realtime Worlds - founded by GTA series creator David Jones - have secured for themselves a spot of funding for their promising-looking MMO shooter APB (and potentially other projects). Like, $US 50 million in funding. Nice. It's rare that console games receive venture capital, even multiplayer ones, so it looks like somebody over at Realtime's doing a good job of selling the game.
Montgomery & Co. Raises $US 50 Million For Realtime Worlds [TechCrunch, via VentureBeat]
