Realtime Worlds' Troubles Confirmed, Faces Liquidation

[Tom Goldman]

Realtime Worlds' Troubles Confirmed, Faces Liquidation

APB Studio Realtime Worlds is not doing so hot after poor reception to the big-budget game.

Develop [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102762-Rumor-APB-Dev-Dropping-Staff] has confirmed that the Scottish studio has entered administration, a UK concept not unlike bankruptcy.

Realtime Worlds' administrator, rescue firm Begbies Traynor Group, is now trying to save it from liquidation by finding an investor. The reveal of Project MyWorld [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102455-Social-Networking-Experiment-Models-Entire-World], Realtime's social networking experiment, may have been an attempt to find a publisher to keep the studio in business, but it met with no luck.

Realtime's troubles came about due to the poor reception of APB [http://www.amazon.com/All-Points-Bulletin-Pc/dp/B002BS480M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1282069544&sr=8-1], a five-year project with a budget rumored to be $80 to $100 million. One of Develop's sources said that 170 employees have been laid off, with 50 staying on to support those actually playing APB, but this is unconfirmed. 60 members of Project MyWorld's staff were definitely let go.

For now the studio's future is up in the air, with Begbies Traynor trying to save both the Scottish and U.S. offices. But without a project that will attract investors, and what some would consider a massive failure in APB, it's not looking good for Realtime Worlds.

Source: Develop [http://www.develop-online.net/news/35644/Breaking-Realtime-Worlds-enters-administration]

Permalink

 

[maddog015]

Well, a shame to hear about the loss of jobs and another game company. However, it was only a mediocre game, at best.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I think they have to blame the failure of that game on really poor advertisement. It's release was alot like Aion's to me; I didn't even know it existed until about a week before launch. The little bit of information I got made it sound like a GTA clone with some kind of jacked up multiplayer shoehorned in so I didn't buy it.

 

[Upturned Walrus]

if they wanted to make more money they should not have made it a pay-to-play and made it for more than just pc

 

[Booze Zombie]

Shame to see people facing the loss of their jobs, here's hoping they can stabilise.

 

[Mechsoap]

make it free to play, then i will buy it

 

[Darktau]

Maybe they should make better games, ZING.

make it free to play, then i will buy it

I see what you did there.

OT: I will miss their fun ideas, APB could have been such an amazing game.

 

[cerebus23]

i dunno i heard about aion and apb quite a bit, if you follow games it was hard not to hear about them and heck i know people that have been excited for aion for a long long time before it dropped and bombed.

some really bad design decisions for apb period and having played beta i have a hard time seeing why this game cost 100 million to produce, the game did not seem deep enough or big enough period to warrant that kind of budget. a f2p studio probably could have done something similar being the maps were small and it was a 3rd person fps, with no pve or story behind it, for a hell of alot less.

 

[PieMaker]

make it free to play, then i will buy it

Yup, major dick movethey did by changing from "buy 2 play" to "pay to play".

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Damn. That's what you get for trying to be different and breaking the WoW formula I guess.

 

[Delusibeta]

Ultimately, they bungled APB, and they paid for it. Pity to see any developer go under, especially one from the UK (despite the fact that they had released exactly two games, the other being the original Crackdown. The sequel was handled by another company).

 

[UnravThreads]

Ultimately, they bungled APB, and they paid for it. Pity to see any developer go under, especially one from the UK (despite the fact that they had released exactly two games, the other being the original Crackdown. The sequel was handled by another company).

Crackdown was actually good, though. Well, I enjoyed it at least.

I agree though, it's a shame to see this happen. But at the end of the day, running a business can be a risky operation, especially when you spend such a large amount on a game like APB. Hopefully someone will come along and buy the technology for the character creator, as that looked nothing short of excellent.

 

[Irridium]

Damn. That's what you get for trying to be different and breaking the WoW formula I guess.

Its not that it was different from WoW that the game was bad, it was bad because it offered nothing fun to do.

 

[Flying-Emu]

I think they have to blame the failure of that game on really poor advertisement. It's release was alot like Aion's to me; I didn't even know it existed until about a week before launch. The little bit of information I got made it sound like a GTA clone with some kind of jacked up multiplayer shoehorned in so I didn't buy it.

Advertisement had nothing to do with the fact that the game was a piece of shit.

I feel bad for those who lost their jobs, but APB was a disaster. Realtime Worlds needs to just give it up: There's no way that APB is EVER going to recoup its development costs.

 

[Mromson]

That's life - you make mediocrity, you die.

<_<

 

[RvLeshrac]

I think they have to blame the failure of that game on really poor advertisement. It's release was alot like Aion's to me; I didn't even know it existed until about a week before launch. The little bit of information I got made it sound like a GTA clone with some kind of jacked up multiplayer shoehorned in so I didn't buy it.

Advertisement had nothing to do with the fact that the game was a piece of shit.

I feel bad for those who lost their jobs, but APB was a disaster. Realtime Worlds needs to just give it up: There's no way that APB is EVER going to recoup its development costs.

This. And every time an RTW developer opens his gaping maw, they just let out more stupid.

Starting with the "we'll fix it in post" attitude of them during beta, and ending with every patch being hailed as "this one fixes all of the issues you could possibly have with the game, so we don't want to hear you people whining."

 

[Jared]

Well, that didnt last a long time. Thats the problem with the MMO market...if, you hit it hard, and dont get what you thought you would...its game over

 

[ultimateownage]

APB was a good idea, but failed miserably. Boring missions, have to pay for clothes which was a main selling point of it, and they said it wouldn't be a monthly contract but ended up using something even worse. Coupled with practically no advertising, the only time I heard about it was E3 '09. Sad to see them go though.

 

[qbanknight]

They really screwed the pooch on APB. The game's system requirements were too heavy to attract a lot of MMO players, the car and gun gameplay was broken, and the only thing that was heavily marketed was the customization. The last part would have been fine, if they weren't beaten to it by the expansive character creation of Saint's Row 2, a game that DIDN'T take 5 years to make.

The tragic part about this whole thing was that I was genuinely excited about this game. I signed up for the beta a year and a half ago, I constantly checked the websites for more news on the game. But Realtime Worlds had no idea how to sell the game or fix its many problems. Chalk this one up to colossal failure