If you're as fascinated with the saga of All Points Bulletin's death and promised resurrection as we are, then buckle up, hang on tight, and cling to clichés like there's no tomorrow. We've already talked with GamersFirst about its tentative plans to tweak and reopen APB next year, but there's far more to the story than that.
On the APB-Reloaded blog, GamersFirst's Bjorn Book-Larsson decided to chronicle the journey from acquisition to relaunch with a series of weekly posts. In the first such post, Book-Larsson makes the humorous observation that his company has been called the "Crazy Cat Lady" of MMO publishers due to picking up "strays" and nursing them back to health. He then dives into the challenge of balancing the game's content and play against its new free-to-play structure.
This transitions to his second post, which examines the company's plan for premium (i.e., paid) players. "The goal then becomes nudging the most hardcore players into 'Premium' account status, in order to help pay the bills, while also letting people lease weapons and perform micro transactions for other items," Book-Larsson writes.
So far, the blog is proving to be a great ongoing read of this high-profile situation, so head on over and check it out for yourself!
Reader Comments (13)
Posted: Nov 29th 2010 7:42PM Yoh said
Heheh, crazy cat lady.
But I really am glad to see APB is finally getting the support it needs.
#1 cause of independent video game death, lack of support.
With proper support, even crap games can hang around like the plague.
(not the APB is crap, it's quite good)
But I really am glad to see APB is finally getting the support it needs.
#1 cause of independent video game death, lack of support.
With proper support, even crap games can hang around like the plague.
(not the APB is crap, it's quite good)
Posted: Nov 29th 2010 7:45PM Doba said
This.game.is.done.for.
Posted: Nov 29th 2010 8:31PM Zhaosen said
Ugh...charging for customization....goddamnit...goddamnit all.
Posted: Nov 29th 2010 8:47PM Buzz Killington said
The problem with the game is that it didn't have traditional MMO "skills", to my knowledge. As you rank up, you didn't unlock any skills to really customize your character beyond surface appearance.
Please change that now. Thanks.
Please change that now. Thanks.
Posted: Nov 29th 2010 8:56PM Keen and Graev said
It's really not a MMO. It's a multiplayer game.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 12:30AM Space Cobra said
"This transitions to his second post, which examines the company's plan for premium (i.e., paid) players. "The goal then becomes nudging the most hardcore players into 'Premium' account status, in order to help pay the bills, while also letting people lease weapons and perform micro transactions for other items," Book-Larsson writes."
Umm, wha? "Letting people lease weapons"?
I am sorry, unless they cost pennies or are insta-one-shot kills, I ain't interested. (Sure, such things would unbalance the game and should NOT be in there, but I freely admit I'd buy one).
Also, the limits on customization could be troubling; we don't know the exact limits or if people would be happy with them or not.
I dunno...can this "crazy cat lady" save this particular cat? ATM, it's not sounding too good.
Umm, wha? "Letting people lease weapons"?
I am sorry, unless they cost pennies or are insta-one-shot kills, I ain't interested. (Sure, such things would unbalance the game and should NOT be in there, but I freely admit I'd buy one).
Also, the limits on customization could be troubling; we don't know the exact limits or if people would be happy with them or not.
I dunno...can this "crazy cat lady" save this particular cat? ATM, it's not sounding too good.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 3:26AM pcgneurotic said
With all the love and goodwill APB has accrued, the inevitable backlash against its resurrection as an F2P game will be... inevitable. Classic American 'love-the-underdog-then-kick-him-when-he's-flying-high' scenario. Awesome.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 4:45AM bobfish said
Not sure what makes them think that they can get away with charging a subscription fee when RTW couldn't.
Premium better be like $5 a month or something, cause it isn't worth a full subscription fee.
Premium better be like $5 a month or something, cause it isn't worth a full subscription fee.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 5:37AM Snichy said
I played APB and am looking forward to seeing how they rework it. However I am not holding out much hope as I just cant see how they can use microtransactions and keep the game balanced, not to mention the "leasing" of guns. It would seem that the more you spend in cold hard cash, the better you will be and that wont go down well with the MMO community. Hope they can find the right balance though as I enjoyed playing it despite its flaws.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 2:04PM vaajtswv said
I hope they remodel the female faces. They all look like Katherine Hepburn... in her 80's.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 5:04PM angrymatt said
Yes. Absolutely. I've been heartbroken since the servers went quiet.
Posted: Nov 30th 2010 6:58PM badpenny said
I don't mind spending a little money to get what I want from APB. I just hope that it does well enough so I can play for longer than 3 months...








