Realtime World boss - former Take 2 boss Gary Dale arrived into Scotland today to break the news to staff. The APB development team were given until this Friday to clear their desks. This follows the situation of employees on MyWorld last week, who have also been fired. Boulder, Colorado, the American office have also lost staff.
Some staff may be kept on to support the recent release of the APB (All Points Bulletin) video game.
Founded in 2002 by Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings designer David Jones, Realtime became the largest independent game developer in Scotland after the surprise success of its first title, Crackdown. As it began work on its second game, APB, the studio grew to more than 200 employees and added an office in Boulder, Colorado.
Just yesterday, Reatime Worlds pulled the plug on its three and six month APB subscription options.
APB was the 7th most expensive video game ever developed, costing over $50m it was in development for almost 5 years, and Realtime Worlds said it’s the most expensive game they’ve ever developed — Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones had to raise Venture Capital, $50 million of it, to make sure that APB has enough money to sustain further development. The official budget is exactly $50 million, but Realtime Worlds was set to spend millions each year supporting and expanding the MMO.
APB is an online sandbox game, each world is supported by servers, each has a limit of 10,000 players online at once. Players played in districts each with its own map which hold up to 100 players for 'action' districts or 250 players for 'social' districts. Each world has 100’s of these district maps. Players can personalise their looks, clothing, vehicles and music no two gamers will be alike.
With a single action district having a 100 player limit there is no limit to the number of other gamers you may encounter.
For gamers who top leagues the character they play will become famous across the whole world.
