According to beta invites going out to accepted users, beta playtesting times appear to be limited, but you get what you pay for. If you got in, let us know. And maybe send us some new, lovely looking screen shots of the APB beta in action. We’re getting tired of the officially released ones.

The EA published PC game is slated for a March 2010 release, giving beta testers ample opportunity to dirty and/or clean the streets of San Paro. Have fun!

Realtime Worlds CEO Gary Dale was on hand at the Tech Media Invest conference in London, where he confirmed that the game some describe as a persistent world Grand Theft Auto would slowly begin letting in beta testers next week. One would expect those accepted into the test to find out extremely soon. Dale also made a point of mentioning that the number of beta participants would steadily increase leading up to next year’s launch, so don’t give up on it, baby.

I honestly have no idea where that last bit came from.

APB beta to go live next week [GamesIndustry.Biz]

If the latest gameplay trailer for Realtime Worlds’ APB doesn’t have you drawing comparisons to Grand Theft Auto, then you probably haven’t played Grand Theft Auto.

McWhertor mentioned the similarities between the two titles in his impressions of APB from Gamescom in Germany last month, and this gameplay clip completely backs him up. Of course this isn’t a bad thing. I’ve had countless hours of fun just tooling around in Free Ride mode in Grand Theft Auto IV, so I could definitely see the finer points of a game that takes that and gives it a direction.

In short, I’d totally hit it, but I’d be thinking of something else.

Realtime Worlds’ cops versus criminals online game is focused far more on the flesh and blood player than a computer controlled one, as illustrated by the deep level of customisation seen in APB’s avatars and highly personalised cars, the first “C” that we wrote about at E3. That customisation extends further to what Realtime Worlds calls “death tunes.” These are user-created jingles that play when an Enforcer kills a Criminal, or vice versa, written with an in-game music creation tool. It’s a griefing tool, rubbing the death of your enemies in their faces with a tune of your choice.

Those were the sights and sounds we experienced during our demo, a pair of missions that involved picking up packages—simply referred to as “evidence”—and delivering them to various locations. The Enforcer team we watched were given that mission by a man named Malcom, who set them up with a nine chapter long series of tasks, a mission we never actually saw the developers complete.

That’s because the Criminals interfered. A real life team of players aligned with the Criminal faction were alerted to the Enforcers’ activities as soon as the police force picked up the evidence.

What really happened there was that a squad of four Criminal players were matchmade by APB when the cops started their mission, as by design. The same would be true for a group of Criminals, should they solicit a mission.

As the Enforcers and the Criminals clashed throughout the Financial District of city San Pero, APB looked like a mix of a traditional MMO and Grand Theft Auto IV, with stats like player names and “threat rating”—essentially a player’s level of skill—displayed above their heads.

Much of the conflict we saw was via gunplay, with players dying and respawning, joining the fray about 100 in-game meters away. The Enforcers have one advantage in APB conflicts, with the ability to “arrest” opponents, extending their opponent’s respawn time.

Yes, handcuffs last longer than death in APB.

The conflict portion of APB looked interesting, if a bit familiar, a blend of third-person gunplay that moves at the speed of an MMO. We’d imagine it’s the possibilities of improvisation and chaos that will ultimately make the game so appealing, at least on top of the character levelling and deep customisation.

APB is slated to be published on the PC by Electronic Arts in the first quarter of 2010, with the developer looking at “console strategies” once it has “everything ironed out.”

The application actually seems like it’s part beta tester app, part demographic survey. Along with the normal questions like processor type and testing experience, Realtime is asking for your marital status, number of children per household, and income level, which to me doesn’t seem to have a great deal of impact on whether or not you can beta test. Most of it isn’t optional, either. You have to select an income range – there is no “No comment” option. The company does at least assure applicants that their information is safe.

The form below is fairly detailed: we’d greatly appreciate you giving us the information requested so that we can understand the kind of player who is interested in APB and collect details on your hardware and beta testing experience. Your information is safe with us: we won’t sell or distribute it in any way.

Perhaps I am overreacting, but this isn’t the type of information I feel I have to share in order to participate in a beta test. I’ll gladly fill out a politely requested survey once my beta application is filled out, but I’d rather it be a bit more voluntary.

My qualms aside, Realtime is actively seeking players, and the application page is encouraging.

Selected testers will receive an invitation by email along with details of how to download the game and take part. If you don’t hear back from us in the next few months, don’t despair, we’ll be selecting more people right through to launch and we will need bigger numbers of testers as time goes on. Even if you’re not selected for the start of the program you may get an invitation later.

If you feel like sharing, head over to the APB beta application page and check some boxes.

APB Beta Signups [Blue's News]

APB has cost Realtime Worlds around $US30 million, between development, data centres, and hardware, so we’d certainly forgive them if they wanted us to pay a monthly subscription rate to be a punk girl with a white mohawk. However, speaking to VG247 during the Develop conference this week, boss David Jones indicated that was not the direction the company is going in.

“Basically, you have to buy the client. It’s a traditional game that you buy… We’re not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month’ route. What we haven’t said is which route we are going, and in some respects we’re still looking.”

Still looking, but Jones assures that APB’s subscription model will be unique and interesting, allowing players to fully understand why they should spend money to cover the company’s investment.

And now it’s time for my suggestion! Allot server bandwidth based on the amount of money players on said server pay. The more money they deliver, the less lag they experience. They could even introduce a free server featuring turn-based shooting.

What? It’s a brilliant idea.

Jones: APB has cost $US30 million, won’t have “normal” subs model [VG247]

“With Crackdown we sold about 1.5 million copies, but even at that we pretty much only managed to break even,” says Dave Jones, boss of developers Realtime Worlds. “It was due to the amount of factors that were out of our control as the developer, influences such as GameStop’s amazing used-game sales; we know 1.5 million new copies were sold, but it’s likely there were 2.5, three million sold when you include used.”

And you wonder why developers and publishers hate GameStop?

Crackdown Only Broke Even, says Dave Jones [IndustryGamers]

During his keynote presentation at this year’s GameHorizon conference, Realtime Worlds creative director David Jones told the crowd that the company’s next massively multiplayer online title, the first details of which will be released next year, is indeed the game the company originally planned to create. In fact, he explained, the unannounced title is the game that they initially raised $US30 million in venture capital funding to help finance.

Other than the fact that the game was “a very ambitious project” and the company is “very excited”, Jones couldn’t comment any further.

We sincerely hope that APD doesn’t develop some sort of complex for being the child Realtime Worlds is having until they can make the baby they really want.

Realtime to announce second MMO next year [GamesIndustry.biz]

Realtime Worlds isn’t going to let their disappointment with Microsoft keep them down. The Dundee-based developer has picked up some new office space, and is looking to increase its talent pool by a good 40 employees by the beginning of 2010, when APD is up and running. While their current staff numbers more than 250, Realtime CEO Gary Dale explains that their games are just plain bigger than that.

“The calibre and potential of games we are creating requires staff of the highest calibre and we’re proud to have found 250 immensely talented and creative individuals so far, and look forward to finding more like-minded people to join the family. We’re coming off the back of a very successful E3, with APB winning countless plaudits, which increases the level of excitement over the coming months as we ramp up to launch.”

Nothing generates job openings quite like plaudits, and there are more than 40 new openings listed right now at the Realtime Worlds website. Be sure to tell them Kotaku sent you. That won’t necessarily help, but it will definitely give us the warm fuzzies, and isn’t that what really matters?