Rumor: APB buyout apparently nearing the "light at the end of the tunnel" [Updated]

It won't go free to play for a handful of reasons, so you can just drop that hope and or wish now. Sorry to put it like that, but we heard that all the time, even right up to the day the servers closed. Too much money put into development to just plop it out there and expect no return on the investment.

I worked with the company in the early stages of development, and I can honestly tell you that there was a great deal more to the game than you ever saw. Truth be known, we needed another good six months to a year to release the product, but the companies backing it didn't want to spend the cash. They'd already pushed the game back once, from what I recall, and feared that pushing it back a second time would kill it.

Let me give you some examples here. For one, there was a casual system developed where a player could interact on a total PvE system. Meaning that though it was still Enforcers versus Crim, it wasn't always Player Versus Player. We had a whole storyline developed with this, as well as a much larger city planned. As first designed, the city was expected to be ten times the size it was in game, and would support players across a broad spectrum of levels and skills. Lastly, in the design plans, we had the system set up to match players based on level; not just at random as the game often did.

What you ended up seeing in game, was a beta version which we had been using through testing to further hone some of the points of the game. In particular, the driving needed a good bit of work; but it was sidelined when the company figured that it was "good enough" to continue with as it was. There were a ton of features that got dropped from the game also. I think the one that bothered me the most, was a feature which would have prevented the cheating. One of the biggest problems was higher level players stomping all over low level ones. It's complicated to explain here, but the system would penalize higher level players who attacked lower level ones in combat or while on missions. The penalty was a sliding scale, but it worked out that anyone 4 levels or more below you, would return less reputation and XP. Anyone ten levels or more below you, would LOWER your reputation and Xp. So killing newbies would end up hurting you more than helping.

Trust me, I'm not a big fan of F2P games. The only reason I mentioned F2P, was because I'm assuming if another company is buying the the game, they're likely going to be getting it pretty darn cheap just so the original company earns something back, instead of having a total loss like NC Soft did just letting TR die. Plus APB has already pretty much failed, the only way I can see the game coming back from the dead is either as F2P, where people will come try it and have nothing to lose. The second option would be if they take the game, go back into development, and give it another 6-12 months of additional development, where they then try and hope for a successful relaunch.

It will be interesting to see if they kept the existing account info and server side character info. Assuming this rumored purchase does actually happen.

"Plus APB has already pretty much failed,....."

APB did not fail. Up until they announced the shutdown they were making money. The administrators stated that the money was being produced was more than enough to make the game self sufficient but not enough to keep RTW running. Lets be very honest here, no MMO released in the past 5 years short of WoW could of pulled enough money to save RTW.

I guess I should have been clearer. I just meant in the eyes of the public, the game is already seen as a failure. If APB were to restart their servers tomorrow, then started selling their game in stores and on Steam, and start charging a monthly fee again, most potential customers are going to question why they should be buying the game, in fear that it might just shut down on them after they spent their money.

At least if they came up with a F2P model that would work, people would be more willing to give the game a chance, because they would have nothing to lose if the game wound up shutting down again a month later. It wouldn't even have to be changed much. Just offer the software of the game as a fee download, then let people play in the PvP districts for free, but limit them to the starter weapons and starting vehicle. If you want the better weapons/upgrades, then you would have to upgrade your account to a monthly premium. In a PvP game, people are going to want/need those weapons/upgrades, so they'll buy that upgrade if they really want to continue playing.

This. Oh, so perfectly this. I really miss TR.

a bane invasion in the streets of san paro? crims and enfs shooting down striders?

I enjoyed TR as well, but I also enjoyed APB. Hard to choose really. I seem to fall in love with dying games. My heart keeps breaking, now I don't want to risk venturing into any new games.

Timely comment. According to the Demotivators calendar somebody stuck up on the office wall here, today is the 3rd anniversary of the end of beta testing on TR.