Topic: APB: Reloaded - Update: Some info on APB:R's upcoming Closed Beta

[MysterD]

NEW - 1/10/2011:
Shacknews -> A little bit of info on APB: Reloaded's upcoming Closed Beta.

OLD:
Reviews
Hexus Review - 45% (out of 100) - major ouch!
PC Gamer Review - 55% (out of 100) - ouch!
IGN - APB - Retail Version Impressions.

Info
Joystiq -> GamersFirst on what they have planned for APB: Reloaded in 2011.
Shacknews -> GamersFirst buys APB and it'll return as APB: Reloaded in 2011 as a Free-To-Play Game.
Kotaku -> Codemasters say they are NOT buying APB.
Eurogamer -> APB has a buyer...we'll find it out if it's Epic or someone else, probably soon enough.
Joystiq -> Dave Jones not headed to Epic.
1Up -> Realtime World's APB Creative Director Dave Jones might be headed to Epic Games.
MCV -> APB servers shut down and APB is now up for a refund from retailers.
Shacknews -> Epic is thinking about buying APB out.
Shacknews -> APB will soon be shutting down...
Shacknews -> EA talks on APB and developer RTW.
Develop -> Activision is looking to possibly hire some of the ex-RTW staff.
Shacknews -> RealTime Worlds files for Bankruptcy.
Console version of APB is still "up in the air".
NO DLC for APB. Yearly expansions will be released to add MORE content (like what Guild Wars did w/ Factions, Nightfall, and GWEN).
Subscription/pricing plans for APB.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
System requirements revealed for APB (All Points Bulletin).

APB's full minimum specifications follow:

    * Core 2 Duo 2Ghz or equivalent
    * 2GB RAM (3GB for Vista64 / Windows 7 64)
    * nVidia GeForce 7800 -- 256MB or equivalent
    * 20GB Hard disk space
    * Headset and microphone recommended
    * Broadband internet connection required

Seems like fairly modest specs -- save for the 20GBs of hard drive space, anyway. Look for APB at retailers starting June 29, and be sure to check out our massive cover story for more info.

[MysterD]

Holy crap @ Realtime Worlds filing for bankruptcy.

[idolminds]

I think APB bombed hard.

[MysterD]

I think APB bombed hard.

Why they just didn't do some Crackdown "spiritual successor" instead is beyond me...

[MysterD]

Shacknews -> APB will soon be shutting down...

Wow, that was fast for a MMO...geez.... 

[Xessive]

Geez, that's gotta be a kick in the nads for anyone who bought it. The least they could do is release it for private servers.

[iPPi]

That sucks.  I hear that that game was in development for nearly five years.  It finally gets released and the backend shuts down in less than three months?  That's kind of harsh.

That said, I'm wondering if the MMO market is too saturated.  Given the pay to play model and the time commitment needed for an MMO, an individual is only likely to be playing one MMO at a time.  We have WoW that's still apparently going strong, FF XIV coming out in a couple of weeks, and then The Old Republic is on the horizon.  It seems that most MMOs that have come out after WoW haven't done too well. 

[W7RE]

Isn't APB like 32 people or less per server? And you only interact with a couple at a time when happen to get missions in the same area? Yea, sounds like a $50-60 free to play game that they wanted to charge MMO fees for. I wouldn't pay monthly to play Modern Warfare, so why would I pay monthly for this? If I'm paying monthly for one game, it needs to be a hell of a lot grander in scale. For a comparison in players per server: WoW has 10,000+ players on LOW POPULATION servers. The high end ones are 20,000+. That's being part of a large world, not dropping in for some capture the flag or deathmatch real quick. That's the sort of environment that justifies a monthly fee to me.

EDIT: Correcting my numbers on WoW populations. Apparently some servers have around 500 players, but that would be like a ghost town. (who was it that said they'd rather play WoW as a single player game? There you go, you'll almost never run into anyone. Though there's still monthly fees.) The most populated server has 33,000 players. (20,000 alliance and 13,000 horde)

[MysterD]

Now THIS is really interesting...
Epic might buy-out APB.

[MysterD]

1Up -> Realtime World's APB Creative Director Dave Jones might be headed to Epic Games.

[MysterD]

Eurogamer -> APB has a buyer.
Looks like we'll find out if it actually is Epic Games or someone else, soon enough.

[Pugnate]

Even though this is the first I am hearing of this game, I am so excited!

I wonder who it could be!

[iPPi]

Hurray.

[gpw11]

Weren't the servers already shut down?  There was a story on The Consumerist recently about a guy who bought the game from a Wallmart at full price and couldn't do shit with it because the servers had been axed.

[MysterD]

Weren't the servers already shut down?  There was a story on The Consumerist recently about a guy who bought the game from a Wallmart at full price and couldn't do shit with it because the servers had been axed.

Yup - they are currently down.
EA was giving refunds out to those who bought the game through the EA-Download store.

[MysterD]

Shacknews -> GamersFirst buys APB.
APB will return in first half of 2011 as a Free-To-Play Game.
Also, it'll be renamed to APB: Reloaded.

EDIT:
Joystiq -> GamersFirst on plans for APB: Reloaded in 2011.

Action Districts will be Openly Accessible

As for gameplay itself, all Action Districts will now be openly accessible. "We always thought it was kinda nutty you had to pay for access -- we understood why, because the back-end server requirements is kinda high for running stuff in the Action District."

For GamersFirst, the goal is to get you in and playing as long as you can "because at some point you're going to run into a situation where you'll want to spend money.

Unreleased Patches & Content; Premium Content; and Other Plans.

"There are things like a racing mode that was never released and other snippets of content and districts never released. Really our first goal is to get the game up and live again, that's number one. If we can cross that hurdle, we'll release the native patch, which was never released by Realtime, then modify that patch to at least promote a few basic monetization things, like a premium account access mode and a gun leasing mode. If we can do those two things, then beyond that there's a whole slew of stuff to do next."

[MysterD]

Shacknews -> A little bit of info on APB: Reloaded's upcoming Closed Beta, for those interesting in trying to get into it.