project-myworld posts

Things may be coming to a head for embattled game developer Realtime Worlds. A few days ago Develop reported via unnamed sources that the company's still unreleased game Project MyWorld has been sold off to an unnamed US company. Now Develop is reporting that the rest of Realtime Worlds is close to being acquired.

A spokesperson for the developer's administrator, Begbies Traynor, is quoted as saying, ""Discussions are continuing and we are expecting to make an announcement next week." The report claims that barring a last minute issue the company's Scotland offices, its US office and the rights to the first person shooter MMO All Points Bulletin will be acquired as part of the deal with the unnamed party. The developer went into administration last August due to the lower-than-expected sales of APB.

The saga of failed game developer Realtime Worlds is apparently taking another turn. Develop reports through unnamed sources that the bankrupt developer has found a buyer for its social gaming-city simulation title Project MyWorld. The game was first announced just a few weeks before the developer went into administration in August. The buyer is said to be an US-based company but no further info on the interested party was reported. It's also not known if the new buyer will keep the 23 developers who are currently working on the game.

In the meantime, Realtime Worlds' higher profile game, the FPS MMO All Points Bulletin, is still looking for a buyer, according to the article. Despite the administrator saying that the game has about 130,000 registered players there doesn't seem to be as much interest from potential buys.

If you have been following the game news for the past few weeks you know that developer Realtime Worlds is all but shut down with just a handful of staff remaining to support the first person shooter MMO All Points Bulletin while another small team works on the social gaming-sim title Project MyWorld. The developer reportedly blew through over $100 million in outside funding before its collapse earlier this month.

Now the UK-based Guardian games blog has a detailed looked at what happened behind closed doors at Realtime Worlds with info supplied by two former members of the company (who are not identified). In short, the sources tell a tale of a developer who was making a game that sounded good in design but lacked polish and the all-important "fun" factor in the end. Having all of that start-up money might have actually hurt Realtime Worlds as well. As one of the ex-employees said, "We got all this money, and it made us relax, when really it should have focused our attention on making sure we had a really good approach to managing the project ... ."