all-points-bulletin posts

It's looking like the closed beta invites for APB Reloaded are being sent out, indicating that the revival of 2010's shut down first person shooter MMO is getting closer. Both Kotaku and PC Gamer are reporting that the invites are being sent out to players who beta tested the original All Points Bulletin game when it was developed by the now defunct Realtime Worlds. Those players will have a chance to restore their original character in the new version.

As some of you may know already, APB launched in June 2010 after years of development but sales of the game were not enough to support the title. Realtime Worlds went bust in September and took the game down with it. However by the end of 2010 Gamersfirst came in to purchase the rights to the game and should officially relaunch it as a free-to-play title later in 2011.

Update: GamersFirst sent out a new email to media outlets stating, "GamersFirst has NOT released any keys or sent out invitations for APB Reloaded closed beta. As of now, no formal date for the APB closed beta has been released and no keys have been distributed. We expect the closed beta to come out near the end of February."

All Points Bulletin may have been one of the biggest failures in PC gaming in 2010 but K2 Network/GamersFirst is determined to relaunched the urban-themed first person shooter later this year as a free-to-play title. Today the game's official Twitter page announced that at the moment the publishing is aiming to start APB Reloaded's closed beta test "somewhere in late February."

In yet another "tweet" GamersFirst said that details on how to apply for the closed beta "will be released next week." GamersFirst launched a blog site a few weeks ago with some details on how their version of the game will be handled.

Late this year, K2 Network announced that it had bought the IP and game assets to the shut down first person shooter MMO All Points Bulletin (APB). While K2 Network is still several months away from relaunching the game, K2 Network's Bjorn Book-Larsson has been giving some hints about what to expect from K2 Network's version of the game, now called APB Reloaded.

The blog reveals that some of the former APB team members from the now defunct Realtime Worlds will be working on the relaunched version as independent contractors with future plans to open up a full fledged UK-based studio in early 2011. It also talks about taking the game into the free-to-play genre and what that will mean for the free players as well as the ones that will choose to go on the paid "premium'' route. In early January the schedule for the game's closed beta, open beta and officiall launch should be revealed.

The word got leaked last week but now GamersFirst has made it official. In a press released issued this morning the free-to-play gaming web site owned by K2 Network announced that it has acquired the publishing rights and the assets to All Points Bulletin (APB), the first person shooter MMO that was first developed and released by Realtime Worlds. As many of you already know, the game was released last June but poor reviews and a lack of players forced Realtime Worlds to shut down only a few months later.

GamersFirst acquired the APB rights from Realtime Worlds' bankruptcy administrator and it will be developed by its subsidiary Reloaded Productions for a relaunch as a free-to-play online only game with micro-transaction support of in-game content. It's scheduled to go live to the public sometime in the first half of 2011. It will also get a name change to APB: Reloaded. This is not the first time that GamersFirst has taken on a game that got shut down somewhere else. Earlier this year it took over the US publishing duties of 9Dragons, a fantasy RPG that was previously run by Acclaim before it was closed down.

Big Download chatted with GamersFirst Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer Bjorn Book-Larsson on Monday morning about the APB acquisition and you can check out what we learned from him after the jump:

All Points Bulletin, or APB for short, may have found a new home. According to GamesIndustry.biz (free registration required) the defunct first person shooter MMO has been acquired by K2 Network, who runs a number of free-to-play MMO titles under the GamersFirst.com web site. The report, which cites unnamed sources, claims the rights to the game were purchased for a mere 1.5 million pounds. The story also states that an official announcement will be made in the next week and APB could be back online by the end of 2010.

Developed by UK-based Realtime Worlds, APB was first revealed back in 2005. Despite several years of development and months of pre-release hype, the game failed to reach a mass audience after its launch last June due to poor gameplay design and bug issues. The game shut down its servers in September and more importantly a large number of developers lost their jobs as Realtime Worlds shut down.

As we have reported earlier this month, the first person MMO All Points Bulletin is now no more as its servers were shut down by defunct game developer Realtime Worlds. The game was distributed and published by Electronic Arts and launched at the end of June which means there are some people who bought the game for $50 that now have nothing to show for it.

So what do you do? According to reports made by players of the game on Steam, players contacting EA via the customer support phone numbers asking for refunds for APB have apparently been able to get at least some compensation. One reader was given a offer for a $20 voucher and then the offer got raised to a free game from EA.

[Via Blue's News]

The planned shutdown of the first person shooter MMO All Points Bulletin has now indeed happened leaving the players who had both purchased the game and also purchased time to play online pretty much out of luck. However the development team at Hi-Rez Studios is taking something of an advantage of this situation to introduce ex-APB players to its sci-fi themedFPS MMO title Global Agenda.

This weekend Hi Rez Studios announced a new sales promotion for Global Agenda. If people purchase the game at its web store and put in the code "LongLiveShooterMMOs" at checkout the game will be priced at $20.99, a 30 percent price cut from its normal price. The special sales code will remain in effect until September 24.

Download Global Agenda Trial Client (6.6 GB)

Summer's almost over and Civilization V is just a few days away. Get ready for lots of turn-based action!

• Speaking of Civ 5, you can now get some CivAnon merchandice at the Take Two online store.
• The weekly Mutation gameplay mode for Left 4 Dead 2 is a repeat of Healthpackalypse,
• There's an interesting article on Gamasutra on how Timegate got PC-based dedicated servers to run for Section 8's PS3 and Xbox 360 ports.
• A former Realtime Worlds employee talks about his opinions on why All Points Bulletin failed.
• Two Worlds II now has a release date of October 5.

Developer Epic Games' was a big support of All Points Bulletin before the first person shooter MMO actually launched last June. The game itself used Epic's Unreal Engine 3 as its basis. Now a new rumor from the BBC web site seems to suggest that Epic is bidding to purchase the IP of APB.

As we reported earlier this week, the game itself is about to shut down after a poor launch (in fact the game's servers could be turned off by the time this post goes live). But the BBC story states that Epic could be in the race to purchase the APB IP. When contacted, an Epic spokesperson gave a somewhat cryptic answer, saying that Epic's VP Mark Rein (misidentified as its CEO in the article) absolutely loves ATB (sic)". The spokesperson added, "We've got our hands full of Gears of War 3, Bullet Storm and the recently announced Project Sword. If any talks like that are going on, then they would be confidential."

It looks like despite efforts to keep the game going, online reports state that the troubled first person shooter MMO All Points Bulletin will officially shut down by Friday. Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) reports that the administrator for the game's bankrupt developer Realtime Worlds was unable to find a buyer for APB that was willing to keep the game going "as a live operation." The game's official web also states that APB " has come to a premature end." The administrator still plans to try to sell off the game's assets and IP. You can check out comments from the development team at the game's official web site including a statement from Realtime Worlds' founder Dave Jones.

Announced back in 2005, Realtime Worlds raised over $100 million from investors to develop the Unreal Engine 3-based game. Despite a ton of hype and promotions beforehand, the game's launch in June was met with poor sales and mediocre reviews and caused Realtime Worlds to enter administration in August. As we have previously reported another upcoming game from the defunct developer, Project MyWorld, is still being worked on after the game was sold off to a still unnamed US company.