Despite Realtime Worlds going into administration and laying off a huge number of people, all is not bad at the RTW kiosk. According to the new administration, offers to invest are coming in from “both sides of the atlantic,” and prospects are high for those remaining at Realtime Worlds, including the employees who were rehired as part of the MyWorld team.
Realtime Worlds announced today that All Points Bulletin has 130,000 players averaging about four hours of game time a day.
“These are healthy numbers and reflect positively on APB as a ongoing concern. They prove this is a very enjoyable game, which is shown by the average player daily playtime and an ARPPU (Average Revenue per Paying User) that is highest of any game out there”
Whatever you say, Joint Administrator Paul Dounis. If enough of those who are playing are horking up extra cash in the form of RTW-bux, then Realtime Worlds should be all set, and perhaps hire back what employees Codemasters, Sony, and Blitz haven’t vultured from the Arizona desert?
Here in my town, there’s no better moment than when an electronics store goes out of business, generally because that means 50+% off on expensive electronics. When FYE went out of business, I managed to pick up Tabula Rasa at 90% off, and it was only one year after the game shut down! When a company starts shedding property (read: Employees), and said company is Realtime Worlds, it’s a veritable picking day for other companies to come in and get recruiting.
Sony, Codemasters, and Blitz were reported shipping off recruiters, designers, and artists to populate the nearby hotels as they pluck up ex-Realtime Worlds employees for interviews in one of their many studios. Codemaster’s chief talent acquisition manager had this to say about the company’s outlook on the ex-RTW staff:
“Realtime employees expertise is unquestionable,”
Blitz’s CEO Phillip Oliver had equal amounts of praise;
“We know that Realtime World has some fantastically talented people and were very sorry to hear the news as it broke late last week. We think Realtime Worlds staff will be pleasantly surprised at the opportunities we can offer them and look forward to talking with them.”
The administrators are doing their best to keep Realtime Worlds alive, but for the time being it is nice to see that ex-employees are getting every offer to jump back into the work force as quickly as possible.
Here in my town, there’s no better moment than when an electronics store goes out of business, generally because that means 50+% off on expensive electronics. When FYE went out of business, I managed to pick up Tabula Rasa at 90% off, and it was only one year after the game shut down! When a company starts shedding property (read: Employees), and said company is Realtime Worlds, it’s a veritable picking day for other companies to come in and get recruiting.
Sony, Codemasters, and Blitz were reported shipping off recruiters, designers, and artists to populate the nearby hotels as they pluck up ex-Realtime Worlds employees for interviews in one of their many studios. Codemaster’s chief talent acquisition manager had this to say about the company’s outlook on the ex-RTW staff:
“Realtime employees expertise is unquestionable,”
Blitz’s CEO Phillip Oliver had equal amounts of praise;
“We know that Realtime World has some fantastically talented people and were very sorry to hear the news as it broke late last week. We think Realtime Worlds staff will be pleasantly surprised at the opportunities we can offer them and look forward to talking with them.”
The administrators are doing their best to keep Realtime Worlds alive, but for the time being it is nice to see that ex-employees are getting every offer to jump back into the work force as quickly as possible.
I’m going to inject a little politics into MMO Fallout when I say that, much like when former President George W. Bush gave a direct warning to the terrorists “bring it on,” Dave Jones’ prediction and seeming lack of care that All Points Bulletin would receive poor reviews was less than intelligent. Although here at MMO Fallout, I’ve always stated not to trust MMO reviews, preferring to utilize game sales, trials (be they limited or unlimited) and generally just the player’s own experience rather than watching a video or reading on paper what the game is about.
Back in early July, not too long after All Point Bulletin’s release, I wrote up an article explaining that the game needed to find its niche and stick with it. If they were going for an MMO shooter feel, than the MMO aspect needed to be beefed up greatly. Likewise, if they were going for a large-scale shooter/driver game, than the driving and shooting needed to be overhauled to make the game viable in a market of games with much better driving and shooting, that more importantly didn’t carry a charge to play. Going off of my earlier point, I should note that despite the embargo on reviews, once the reviews from reputable sources (take with grain of salt) came in, they were less than stellar.
Unfortunately, Realtime Worlds is in a rut a lot of MMOs get into after they launch: Launching the game with the hopes of doing large fixes will not cut it when your players are not willing to fund you, and investors aren’t willing to supplement your coffers to implement those changes. Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Realtime Worlds has gone into administration, which is where the company is allowed to operate until they find an investor, despite being insolvent (unable to pay their debts).
Kinda reminds you of in 2008 when Dave Jones said that APB could compete with WoW on the market.
So is this the end for Realtime Worlds? Not necessarily. MMO Fallout will be here to cover the ongoing look for an investor. I’ll start my bid at whatever is in my change box of coins.
Realtime Worlds has released a press statement over the recent rumors that the MyWorld team has been cut, as well as cuts for the company’s MMO, All Points Bulletin. Colin Macdonald offered Develop-Online a few words regarding this past weekend at Realtime Worlds.
“The supporting infrastructure for a game inevitably changes once released, and those staff that couldn’t be redeployed to new projects in the Art, Audio, Coding, Design, Production, and QA departments have regrettably been made redundant.”
On the note of Project MyWorld, it appears as if the studio has not been cut completely, although they have seen a hit in staff. Unfortunately for the team, however, Realtime Worlds is still struggling to find a publisher for the upcoming title. According to Macdonald, the team is still looking at options.
But what about All Points Bulletin and the rumors that Realtime Worlds was looking to ship off the team?
“We’re completely behind APB, it’s got huge potential, and we’ll continue to make new content for it.”
All Points Bulletin is in the middle of an identity crisis, as it would seem, where the developers need to pick a side and stick with it, as to whether or not the game is an MMO or a competitive shooter.
A'ridin on a pony
Realtime World’s Dave Jones predicted that reviewers would not be so lenient on All Points Bulletin, and he was right. So far, the reviews have been around the middle (average 5’s to 6’s out of 10), with the negative comments mainly focused on the idea that, for a driving and shooting game, the driving and shooting mechanics need quite a bit of tuning. A lot of good has been noted towards the customization features and the character creator.
All Points Bulletin is in the middle of an identity crisis, as it would seem, where the developers need to pick a side and stick with it, as to whether or not the game is an MMO or a competitive shooter.
If All Points Bulletin is an MMO, Realtime Worlds needs to flesh out the world which, as of right now, is quite two dimensional. I’m not asking for anything huge, like the epic quests in Lord of the Rings Online, but Realtime Worlds could definitely spruce up the world by hosting live story-driven events that allow both sides to be involved. They could run an overall story arc with developer presence akin to The Matrix Online, for example starting with the criminals attempting to blow up a building and steal secret files inside (not in that order). Whoever wins moves the story arc in a variety of areas.
On the other hand, if Realtime Worlds wants to bill itself as a competitive online shooter, then the shooting and driving mechanics need to be overhauled yesterday. In a game where chase missions are often and plenty, having driving being as painful as it is in All Points Bulletin is very off-putting, feeling as if you are behind the wheel of a consistently intoxicated driver. As many have also said, the shooting feels unresponsive and you don’t feel as if you are shooting a weapon when the person you are pumping a full clip into barely flinches.
On another note, if Realtime Worlds wants to bill APB as a shoot-em-up and not an MMO, you will likely see that subscription go out the door faster than with Global Agenda, and Global Agenda’s subscription portion was eons closer to the traditional MMO formula than All Points Bulletin is.
I like All Points Bulletin, and I did pre-order, and I have played several hours. I do admit, however, that the game appears to be torn between two genres, and may be trying to move in two directions at once in a “jack of all trades, master of none” situation.
Gentlemen, start your pitchforks. A detail savvy player on the All Points Bulletin forums has discovered that, in addition to requiring players to pay a subscription (be it in hourly increments or in monthly flat fees), Realtime Worlds has also decided to place advertisements in the game’s VOIP feature. And what could be better than getting advertisements in a paid game? Paying an addition fee to not hear them. RTW is offering 30, 90, and 180 day specials to not hear advertisements.
According to Community Officer Toxico, who was quick to respond, the advertisements only play every three hours, while loading a district. The prices are pretty cheap, starting at about one dollar for 30 days (40 rtw points). People naturally don’t like advertisements, but if one ad every three hours is enough to ensure RTW won’t be charging for VOIP, I think the APB players will survive. You always have that mute button when entering a district.
A lot of professional gaming publications have a you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours relationship with developers. The publication promises that it will give the review a fair score, and the developers often send them exclusives and swag (have you ever seen the desk of some of these writers? Covered!). Of course, the publications get their copies of the games long before we do, generally with an agreement that they will do short previews, followed by a set universal date for when the review can be published. The intent is well, as developers want to allow as much time as possible for the publication to actually play the game before reviewing it. It is to be said that even with these time allowances, some publications still make it out the door with unprofessional, rushed reviews of games that the reviewer did not play (I’m looking at you, Eurogamer) that result in low scores, and of course the review itself being removed.
Your average Joe, on the other hand, does not abide by these restrictions. He does not have any incentive to hold off or formulate his opinions in a thoughtful, or calm manner. He might, on a regular review website, but on a public forum he will type as his heart directs him: Right over to the surplus sale on expletives. A publication may understand the differences between beta and release, but Average Joe does not, and neither does the person who is reading the review based on his closed/open beta experience.
What is accepted, almost universally, is that when a game hits open beta, it should be in an virtually finished state. Aside from stress testing the servers, MMO developers should not be using the open beta period prior to release as a method of gauging incomplete features or mechanics, and the game itself should not drastically change on the day of release. Despite this, it still happens, as I have said before:
“Abilities get tweaked, some features get buffed, and yes some features get nerfed. MMOs are never a final product, and big changes should always be expected.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, on something likely unimportant
In an email sent out with keys to the city, Realtime Worlds noted:
Before finalising reviews, we want you to experience the full, rich experience of APB as it is meant to be seen. We want you to see wild customer customisations, player progression and clans making an impact on the living breathing city of San Paro. This key code also therefore grants you, along with our pre-order customers, VIP early access before the official launch day. June 26th in North America and June 28th in Europe.
It makes sense, but for the wrong reasons that sets a bad precedent for Realtime Worlds. Now that the news of this embargo is being reported on, when the game does come out and widely reported issues with shooting and driving become even more publicly available, people may assume the worst: That the embargo was an effort to stifle critique.
Australians may not be able to properly play All Points Bulletin when it launches, but the rest of us can rejoice. For a while now, I’ve seen a lot of complaints by players towards downloadable content (DLC) and microtransactions worming their way into various MMOs, be it the recent goggles/dog in Fallen Earth, the new mounts in Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and the ever-growing Cryptic Store, it seems many MMOs are including a cash shop in some form or another. There are enough of us willing to tolerate it and accept it that the fad is growing, but there is a group (albeit much smaller than many of them will admit to) that does not want anything to do with any MMO that offers cash shop items in a subscription game, whether they be useful or cosmetic.
Well, there is at least one MMO holding out for the time being. Realtime Worlds lead designer EJ Moreland has announced that All Points Bulletin, the upcoming cops and robbers shoot-em-up MMO, will not feature downloadable content or microtransactions in any form whatsoever. Even better, the game won’t even feature small paid “adventure packs” (I’m looking at you, Cryptic), but will only charge when…I’ll let Moreland explain it:
“We won’t be offering items for sale for real money. We have no DLC. Any update we do throughout the cycle is free except when we do a major retail event, which will add almost a completely new game. Throughout the year, we’re going to release both content updates, which are new missions, new clothing assets, new weapons, new vehicles. Basically, new things for the players to earn, customize, or experience. Then we have much larger updates, which will come less frequently, called activity updates. [These will] introduce new gameplay, new rulesets, or new large additions to the game. Then probably once every year or so, we’ll also do a retail event, which will be an expansion.”
Supporters of no-dlc-ever should be giving respect to Realtime Worlds, even if you don’t necessarily like the game. The above was stated in a round table phone interview with EJ Moreland.
It’s always a shame to see Australia getting beaten with the short end of the stick (the end with the railroad spike) and put as much blame on the ratings board as you will, it is far more likely to see a game not released in Australia because it was banned, rather than the developer simply saying “we don’t feel like it.” Such is the case when Realtime Worlds decided that they would not be setting up local servers in Australia, meaning Electronic Arts will not be selling All Points Bulletin to the Australian market.
All Points Bulletin, the upcoming MMO by Realtime Worlds, is a fast paced game that requires fast paced servers that can deliver fast paced action at a fast pace in order to pace itself with the fast pace of the fast paced players in a fast paced world. As such, unlike certain MMOs (Eve Online, Fallen Earth, etc) where players from around the world join one clustered server, it just isn’t feasible for Australian players to connect to US or European servers.
The exact reasons are not official, but the call is likely due to the cost of hosting the servers versus how much Realtime World expected to gain from selling box copies and subscriptions.
MMO Fallout 