Rumor: Epic Games in talks to buy APB

Could the Gears of War folks be the knight in shining armor that doomed APB desperately needs? According to BBC, Epic Games is possibly interested in scooping up Realtime Worlds' MMO, although nothing is confirmed at this point. Realtime Worlds abruptly announced yesterday that APB was to be shut down today, sending shockwaves through the community.

While Epic Games is not commenting on any possible negotiations, a spokesperson confirmed that Epic's CEO, Mark Rein, is a fan of the game. "Mark absolutely loves APB, and everyone here loved what they saw. 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," Dana Cowley, Epic's spokesperson, said. Rein was outspoken about his enjoyment of the game at PAX last year.

Epic Games may also have a vested interest in the technology powering APB. We'll be keeping our ears to the ground on this one if anything further develops.

Reader Comments (24)

I would shower you with good thoughts if you did this.

In the hands of epic games, I can see this game becoming super polished master piece. Let's hope, for the good of inventive mmo gaming, that this is successful.

Holy moses, that would be amazing! Here's to hoping this ends up being fact, and my interest in APB can once again be rekindled.

-Birk

i think they should still take it down tho

don't rush into buying it and then try fix it on the fly

take it down for 6 months fix it polish it re release it

those with current accounts get access straight away and then put the game back out on the shelves

YES!

I hope this happens!

peeps with current accounts (that arent flagged for hacks) should be the alpha/beta testers imo. This only really works if they are able to go with sub again, unless epic is doing so well that they would just be doing this to garner good will in the gamer community and maybe pave the way foe apb2 if a "charity" project goes well

As it is, APB is the foundation for a ground breaking game. It had flawed and easily exploitable game mechanics, but there were times when playing it was the most fun I've ever had playing PC games.

Someone should snap up the game. Take it down and fix where RTW went wrong. Throw in some aggressive anti hacking software and give it a media blitz release (something APB lacked).

The death of APB has given it more publicity than it ever garnered while it was alive.

I wonder what they'd do with it exactly.

In its current incarnation, it can't stand up to any amount of serious player attention.

Would they invest heavy resources and man hours into overhauling the gameplay and retool the entire game?

Maybe they would salvage the game's technology and IP to form some sort of sequel or follow up that would take the game in a new, more stable direction?

Interesting rumor.

I'm really surprised that somebody hasn't snatched up APB. What that tells me is that they're probably asking too much for it.

Still, how much would it cost to keep the game running? Probably not much. Ongoing development is one thing, but if you could buy the game at a pittance and keep it running, why not? After all, the lion's share of the work, time, and investment has already been fronted by RW. You can't beat that deal: "Here's a completely finished, up-and-running MMO that we spent years working on. Take it off our hands."

If they are looking to grab APB, I would bet that it was so they can get the char creator for use in further UE3 games.

That's I'm thinking too. I don't see why they would want APB as a whole. It would be a waste of their time and money to buy and fix everything. They probably want certain pieces for their own projects.

To best very honest, I would say a strong developmental team along with a select play test group could produce a patch to get APB on a positive track. They could eliminate the glaring issues with the game allowing it to attract new players. With the right direction they could have everything back up in running in 30 days.

Heh, good luck to them on this one. Between trying to patch it into a reasonable state, upgrading it to something better and trying to kick out all the exploiters and cheaters, they're going to have one hell of an albatross around their necks if they go for it. At least if they did, chances would be good that they'd get a bargain for their trouble. Nobody would pay anything near $100m bucks for that thing. Not a chance.

I so hope this has a happy ending.

That's mostly just in the social districts...

If Epic Games buys it they are going to make it console exclusive and use piracy as an excuse.

The only real thing I'm gonna miss from this game, is just the concept, that's all really, I tried the free trial, and I did not really like it at all, I was really looking forward to this game for a year now, and when it came out, I was really disappointed with it.

If the rumors are true this would be nothing more of a technology grab
than anything else.

It would be nice to see this MMO saved and cleaned up and more than that it was a shame to see it die so fast. There has to be talks to close a their servers so fast.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Rumor: Epic Games in talks to buy APB

Reader Comments (24)

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 10:45AM shocktheshammy said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 10:49AM ultimateq said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 10:56AM Birk said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 10:58AM alinos said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 12:04PM Snichy said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:00AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:08AM shocktheshammy said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:08AM Quarlo said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:12AM Bartlebe said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:14AM MrDiamondJ said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:32AM The Other Chris said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 4:09PM Qin said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:40AM Phone Guy said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 11:54AM Controlled Chaos said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 12:02PM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 2:41PM Darkdust said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 12:17PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 12:46PM smitesalot said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 1:20PM BubleFett said

Posted: Sep 17th 2010 1:23PM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Massively surveys WildStar's Scientist and Settler paths, the Esper class, and the crazy things Jeremy Gaffney says

Featured Stories

Massively surveys WildStar's Scientist and Settler paths, the Esper class, and the crazy things Jeremy Gaffney says

WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney on progression, tradeskills, and endgame

WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney on the Settler path

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW