Realtime Worlds – Page 2

Wait…What? WHAT!? All Points Bulletin Is Gone…Taken Offline

See? This is what I get for going to school. Several hours ago, Realtime Worlds announced that All Points Bulletin will be shutting down within the next 24 hours. It feels like just last week we were reporting on Realtime Worlds heading into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, selling off MyWorld, and desperately trying to find a new bidder for All Points Bulletin. At the time, Realtime Worlds expressed that the game was still lively, holding 130,000 active players. In a post on the APB forums, Brett Bateman had this to say;

“APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone’s best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close.”

According to Eurogamer, a source close to Realtime Worlds disclosed that the game will be pulled within 24 hours, as the company could not find a buyer.

“Despite all the talk, no buyer has been found so it looks like the plug is about to be pulled. We’ve heard that it could go tomorrow”.

Our thoughts and hopes go out to the now ex-employees of Realtime Worlds. It appears as though All Points Bulletin is already offline, as neither the forums nor the game itself are working currently.

I’ll be updating as more information appears, but this for all intent and purpose, this is the end of APB.

Biting The Hand That Once Fed You: Realtime Worlds Edition

“APB itself only really came together technically relatively late in its development cycle (and it still obviously has problems), leaving too little time for content production and polish, and lacking any real quality in some of its core mechanics (shooting / driving). It’s not that the team was unaware of these huge issues, but a million little things conspire to prevent you from being able to do anything about them.”
-Anonymous Realtime Worlds ex-employee

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and anonymity, when a company lays off a whole lot of people, we have the avenue for them to anonymously reveal exactly what was going on at said company that lead to said layoffs. The above anonymous ex-employee makes a lot of good points as to why All Points Bulletin performed the way it did in the market, most importantly below:

“They also failed spectacularly to manage expectations. When Dave J spoke out saying there would ‘not be a standard subscription model’, he unwittingly set expectations at ‘free to play’. When it’s announced that we’re essentially pay-per-hour, we get absolutely killed in the press, somewhat understandably.”

Luke Halliwell is not, on the other hand, afraid of sticking his name and face out to give his grief about Realtime Worlds. In his blog, he notes:

There had been mounting discontent internally about the competence of our top management – and what better proof could you need than this. How they could keep operating the company when they couldn’t even pay this month’s wages, I don’t know. Presumably they continued to think we had a chance somehow; the behaviour of a deluded, greedy, addicted gambler.

His wife, Lucy, who posted in the comment section was not as restrained, especially when the subject comes to feeding their family and owed wages:

“Dave Jones and Ian Hetherington have pissed away millions, they are getting away with not paying over 200 employees for the work that they have done and have fiddled their way to being able to buy back Project:MyWorld for cheap. Moreover these very people have enough personal wealth to pay the money owed to the individuals and families whose lives they have left shattered, heck Dave could probably pay them all just by selling one of his beloved cars. So I’m more than a little pissed off, but mothers get like that when their kids are hurting.”

We here at MMO Fallout (me) wish the best for everyone at Realtime Worlds, as well as their ex employees. More on APB as it appears.

All Points Bulletin: 130,000 Players

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?

Epic Loot: Sony, Codemasters, and Blitz Looting Realtime Worlds' Unemployed

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.

Epic Loot: Sony, Codemasters, and Blitz Looting Realtime Worlds’ Unemployed

“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.”

All Points Bulletin: You Are Dead, Not Big Surprise.

The_Mummy_3_Wallpaper_1920x1200-592067 — And yet The Mummy Lives

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: APB Is Our Focus

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.”

More on All Points Bulletin as it appears.

Announcement Coming Today From Realtime Worlds

According to VG247, the news website received information from an anonymous source at Realtime Worlds that the Crackdown (and All Points Bulletin) developer has restructured, laying off much of the crew. Generally this wouldn’t be a huge surprise in the MMO business, but if what the source said is true, the entirety of the MyWorld team may have been laid off, and Realtime Worlds may be looking to sell off the APB team.

“The MyWorld team has been completely laid off. As many as 60 may have gone, but there’s a rumour they may be trying to sell the team as a smaller entity. I don’t know the exact figure.”

Realtime Worlds’ Community Officer APBMonkey had the following to say on the forums:

As we”ve announced we had to restructure the company to make it so that we can focus totally on APB.

APB is still going strong and we fully intend to support 100%. In fact we have a cool announcement coming this afternoon, so keep your eyes peeled

Luckily, according to ABPMonkey, you have nothing to fear.

“We have no intention of shutting APB down! In fact we”re going full steam ahead and we”ve got some exciting stuff planned. Stayed tuned for an announcement this afternoon.”

MMO Fallout will be here to cover this announcement this afternoon.

All Points Bulletin: Massive Overhaul Coming

The last time I talked about All Points Bulletin, I believe I said something along the lines of…

“…if Realtime Worlds wants to bill itself as a competitive online shooter, then the shooting and driving mechanics need to be overhauled yesterday.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, On All Points Bulletin

That’s it. Dave Jones of Realtime Worlds has already said he expected All Points Bulletin to receive bad reviews, and his prediction came true almost immediately after the game launched. The major points that the reviews and critics of the game focused on were the driving and shooting mechanics. For a game that bills itself around driving and shooting, driving a car was a test of patience, and shooting was a matter of who had the better gun or the best camping spot.

In a recent announcement on the website, Realtime Worlds put out an article titled “The Road Ahead.” In the article, Neil Castle announces plans to overhaul the driving system, allowing for the same old drifting while also increasing handling and giving the vehicles less of a sloppy feel. In addition, all aspects of the shooting and weapons systems are being looked at and balanced.

These are just two updates coming in a major overhaul to All Points Bulletin, that will change the way missions are structured, how cheaters are dealt with, players camping in certain areas, and more. Hopefully this will bring just the upgrade All Points Bulletin needs to become the driving, shooting game that people might actually want to play for the driving and shooting aspects (and not just the character creator).

All Points Bulletin Needs To Solve Its Identity Crisis

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.

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.

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.

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