APB Comes to a "Premature End"

[Andy Chalk]

APB Comes to a "Premature End"

Realtime Worlds has announced that APB [http://na.apb.com/en], which only came out at the end of June, is being shut down for good.

It was probably inevitable: After a long, expensive development period, APB was released at the end of June to go into administration [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102904-EA-Predicted-APBs-Poor-Reception]. Such a quick collapse didn't bode well for the future of the game and today, less than 90 days after it launched, the other shoe dropped.

"APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end," Community Officer Ben Bateman wrote in what is now the only message available on the APB forums [http://eu.apb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76993]. "Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running, APB is coming to a close. It's been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome!"

He said he currently doesn't know what options will be available to players with outstanding RTW Points but that they'll likely be laid out in a forthcoming press release. The game is no longer available on Eurogamer [store.steampowered.com] says the plug will be pulled once and for all tomorrow.

UPDATE: APB will be free until it's gone, but Bateman noted on Twitter that the servers are going down for good tonight [http://twitter.com/benbateman/status/24682317242]. In other words, if you want to be around for the big finish, you'd better get moving.


Permalink

 

[Cheesebob]

Jesus christ! Years of hype and only 90 days alive?

Shortest life span of an MMO ever?

 

[hazabaza1]

Oh, geez, I nearly bought that!
£30 down the pot it would've been.

We, shame to see a game go down, I guess, even if I never played it.

 

[Sneaklemming]

Wow. Thats not a good precedent for MMOs I'd imagine. APB will surely be held up as a worst case scenario for developers in the future.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Gwah, you people ninja'd me, I just posted about it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.232744-APB-to-be-no-more]. Ha.

As I said in my post, I don't regret the money I spent on the game, only its wasted potential.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Yikes. 90 days huh? I've got it sitting on my shelf too. Didn't really care for it but I loved the customization aspect of the game and would occasionally dick around with it.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

I figured that would happen, but 90 days? That's depressing.

A shame that had to happen, but, well, it was doomed pretty much sinse release. They should've tried making it F2P or something.

Sad news indeed.

Oh, and, from browsing the guys twitter, I've found out that Realtime Worlds is also very dead. And that's even more of a shame.

Thanks for Crackdown, people.

EDIT: Also, they've just made APB free. So, you can all go check it out while it's dying.

 

[Flamezdudes]

This is the shortest MMO ever. Seriously, this is quite funny.

 

[Krakyn]

Gwah, you people ninja'd me, I just posted about it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.232744-APB-to-be-no-more]. Ha.

As I said in my post, I don't regret the money I spent on the game, only its wasted potential.

I DO regret the money I wasted on that game, and I'm pissed. They didn't provide on their end of the deal. If a fire started at the warehouse where I was storing my car, they'd have to pay me for my charred husk of a vehicle. I expect a refund for my charred husk of a game.

 

[Landslide]

I bought and played it for a month. It was slick, but suffered from very limited amounts of content - for any genre, but especially for an MMO. There were also some equipment balance issues, and fundamental exploits that players could abuse to the detriment of anyone who didn't abuse them.

I'm going to assume the timing wasn't expected, as this is pretty telling:

 

[yourbeliefs]

Too bad. I can only imagine the inner financial hardships they were having to shut it down so soon. To not even hit 90 days is a real disappointment to the developers, owners, and players of the MMO.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

No wonder its already been shut down, I never heard of it. They must have done a pretty bad job of getting the word out.

(Or maybe im just ignorant? I hope so).

Sadly, no. The utter lack of advertisement done for the game was an oft-discussed reason for its poor growth at release. I myself had never heard of it until I saw the preorder offer on Steam. (There was also the issue that a good many bugs and balance issues found in the beta were never resolved before release, but that gets filed more under "don't rush the game before it's ready".)

 

[kouriichi]

Ugh.
And i still have 20 hours left on my account.
*puts on hard hat*
Time to burn the midnight oil.....

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

And i bought it 3 days before they went into administration. Oh well.. my friend that convinced me to get it will be the one to suffer for this.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Wow 90 days it must be a record!

 

[Johnny Cain]

And here I thought Hellgate: London collapsed before it's time.
This just doesn't seem fair, the game never got a chance to evolve or grow.

 

[thehorror2]

Ok, so now give us the part half of us actually wanted the game: the character customizer. Seriously, my little sister, who won't touch FPS online or off wanted me to get this game for her so she could tool around in the character builder forever. Sell me that and a single-player version of the game client with AI bots, and I'd give you at least $50.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Wow 90 days it must be a record!

I think it is, or at least among major releases. The shortest I've known an MMO survive before this one was Seed, that colony game that lasted less than five month.

APB didn't even fare that well.

snip

Just a request, could you mention it's free now [http://twitter.com/benbateman] in your article? I think there are some people here who could be interested in seeing the downfall of APB.