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GamersFirst hires Dave Jones as APB Reloaded advisor

Jef Reahard — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin, Crime

Raise your hand if you saw this one coming: Dave Jones is back on the All Points Bulletin team. The former Realtime Worlds boss and the brains behind APB's original incarnation (as well as Crackdown and the first two Grand Theft Auto games) has joined GamersFirst "in an advisory role and will share his vast game design experience during critical design stages" according to a new press release.

Jones has flown under the radar since the meltdown of Realtime Worlds and appears to be excited to get back on the development horse. "The game was my passion back when I was developing it with Realtime Worlds, and I'm extremely excited to be able to participate in fulfilling the long term vision for the title," he said. Jones also goes on to praise GamersFirst's free-to-play vision for San Paro.

APB Reloaded is currently winding down its closed beta stage, with open beta scheduled for May 18th.

GamersFirst hires Dave Jones as APB Reloaded advisor originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 12 May 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Realtime Worlds' MyWorld purchased, APB still in limbo

Jef Reahard — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, All Points Bulletin, MMOFPS

Develop, a European-based games industry trade magazine, has revealed the sale of Project MyWorld from troubled studio Realtime Worlds to an unnamed American company. In a story released on its website earlier today, the publication stated that the purchase has split Realtime Worlds into at least two separate entities, each of which is being eyed by several potential buyers.

The fate of the 23 developers recently re-hired by administrating firm Begbies Traynor is currently unknown, as is the ultimate fate of Realtime Worlds' more famous creation, the $100 million MMOFPS known as All Points Bulletin. Develop's confirmation of a U.S.-based purchaser for Project MyWorld would seem to invalidate speculation that the anonymous buyers are Realtime Worlds heads Dave Jones and Ian Hetherington.

You can view all the details at Develop's website.

Realtime Worlds' MyWorld purchased, APB still in limbo originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Realtime Worlds restructuring to provide "total support" for APB

Rubi Bayer — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, All Points Bulletin, Crime

APB's Dave Jones said he expected mediocre reviews from the media immediately after launch. Be that as it may, the Realtime Worlds team obviously feels that the game is a success, according to today's press release.

The press release announced that the APB staff will increase, and Realtime Worlds will actually be pulling resources from an unnamed second project as well in order to give full support to APB. This will mean 24/7 live support, more content updates, and generally a more active future for the game.

CEO Gary Dale explained that the decision is a reflection of the game's successful launch and Realtime's expectation of continued success in the future: "APB experienced a very smooth launch for an online dedicated game along with a great reception from consumers and we're immensely proud of the game the team has produced. We now have to focus our efforts and resources on running APB as a 24/7 online live operation, creating new content and services for the future and ensuring the best possible experience for the players." Check out the press release for all the details.

Realtime Worlds restructuring to provide "total support" for APB originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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APB needs partner to make console version, but willing

Krystalle Voecks — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, News items, Consoles, All Points Bulletin, Crime, MMOFPS

The idea of console MMOs is nothing new. After all, EverQuest Online Adventures, Final Fantasy XI, and the Phantasy Star titles have managed to successfully publish on consoles. With that said, it seems as if there's been a trend with recent MMOs to say they were going to console like Age of Conan and Champions Online, only to change their minds later. That's why we weren't surprised to see that David Jones, Creative Director of Realtime Worlds, sat down with Eurogamer and discussed the potential of a console port for his company's recent release, All Points Bulletin.

What we did find interesting was that, despite knowledge of consoles from working on the first two Grand Theft Auto titles and Realtime Worlds being partnered with EA for distribution, there has been no discussion between the two companies regarding porting All Points Bulletin to consoles. Jones notes that the team at Realtime Worlds will remain focused on working on the PC version, as opposed to shifting into trying to build a console version, or trying to "shop around" for a partner. That said, he certainly sounds willing to discuss a deal if the right distribution partner for consoles were willing to contact them. Be sure to pop over to Eurogamer if you're wondering what else Jones may have in mind for All Points Bulletin.

APB needs partner to make console version, but willing originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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APB's Dave Jones expected mediocre reviews

Jef Reahard — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: New titles, News items, All Points Bulletin, Crime

Realtime Worlds' Dave Jones may have created something of a self-fulfilling prophecy when he predicted that game reviewers would be less than kind to All Points Bulletin. The recently released MMOFPS hasn't exactly torn up the scoring charts on the major review sites since its debut last month.

"It's always hard when you create something new as it requires a natural learning curve. Also because APB is online multiplayer focused, it's best played as intended, with 60 to 100 people in the city with you. For these same reasons I expect the reviews to be mixed," Jones told CVG.

While Massively has a long-standing policy against reviewing MMORPGs, you can read our first impressions to get a general feel for the game's open beta as well as its long-term potential.

APB's Dave Jones expected mediocre reviews originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To Live and Die in San Paro: APB first impressions

Jef Reahard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Launches, New titles, All Points Bulletin, Crime

Welcome, criminals and enforcers alike, to Massively's first impressions of All Points Bulletin. We've been spending a bit of time in the beta, as well as the recent Key to the City event, and we're here to bring you the skinny on what it's like to live (and die) on the streets of San Paro. Realtime Worlds has created a unique title, one that certainly won't appeal to everyone and is somewhat rough around the edges, but one that also has a mountain of potential.

Yes, I know, the dreaded P-word, often thrown about during an MMO's launch window as a way of deflecting criticisms. In APB's case though, it fits. Perhaps the first thing that needs addressing when looking at a game like APB is something many of our commenters have opined about as we've covered the game these past few months, namely, is it in fact an MMO. The answer is... kinda. To elaborate, we'll take a quick look at how the game works before diving head first into our opinions, both good and bad.

Hit the jump for more.

Continue reading To Live and Die in San Paro: APB first impressions

To Live and Die in San Paro: APB first impressions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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APB's Key to the City event delayed

Jef Reahard — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: New titles, News items, All Points Bulletin, Crime

Realtime Worlds has announced a delay in their Key to the City end-of-beta promotion. The teaser event, designed to give prospective players a taste of life on the crime-ridden streets of San Paro, features five hours of action district gameplay and unlimited social district gameplay.

In a news post just released on the All Points Bulletin website, game creator Dave Jones outlines the reasons for the hiccup. "We've worked tirelessly to bring the service online, installing and configuring a massive amount of new hardware in our data-centres, to help meet the high demand and bring you the best experience we can. As we're sure you'll appreciate, this is a huge undertaking and unfortunately on this occasion, we've hit a number of installation delays," he says.

The event is currently scheduled to take place starting at 9:00am EDT on Saturday, June 12th.

APB's Key to the City event delayed originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dave Jones: All Points Bulletin shelf life 5 to 10 years

James Egan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, New titles, All Points Bulletin, Crime

The crime-focused title All Points Bulletin is one of the upcoming games we've taken a fairly keen interest in here at Massively. While we're still hoping for more gameplay footage in the video podcasts that APB developer Realtime Worlds has been releasing since E3 2009, but there's been a fair amount of general info revealed about the game in recent interviews.

Although APB's design is a departure from some of the game mechanics found in massively multiplayer online games, Realtime Worlds is banking that their urban crime title will have the longevity of a solid MMO. Dave Jones, Creative Director on All Points Bulletin, says they could be looking at five to ten years of life in the game.

Continue reading Dave Jones: All Points Bulletin shelf life 5 to 10 years

Dave Jones: All Points Bulletin shelf life 5 to 10 years originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Realtime Worlds to announce second MMO project next year

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, New titles, News items, All Points Bulletin, Crime

Not one, but two MMOs are to come out of Realtime Worlds, the Scotland based developer of All Points Bulletin. Even more intriguingly, this second MMO is actually the company's original MMO project!

According to Realtime's CEO, Dave Jones, during his keynote speech at GameHorizon, their original investment drive of 30 million dollars was actually for their new product, this unnamed MMO. However, due to the ambitious nature of the project, All Points Bulletin was moved forwards in the production list to give the company a solid foundation before moving onwards.

While all details of this next project remain a mystery, Jones has said that the company is very excited to move fowards with this next project, their original MMO project. While we can't first hand attest to how ambitious this project is, we believe that actually moving your project backwards just so you can get another MMO out first really says something about how ambitious the project is.

Realtime Worlds to announce second MMO project next year originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All Points Bulletin chaos to balance out with Criminal and Enforcer dynamic

James Egan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Interviews, New titles, All Points Bulletin, Crime

The upcoming criminals-vs.-vigilantes game All Points Bulletin holds the promise of being an absolutely chaotic rampage, where a hundred players lay waste to a sprawling urban environment. While that *seems* like it would be fun, for a while anyway, even the most destructive gamer incarnate of Jack Thompson's personal antichrist will ultimately grow tired of blowing stuff up. Fortunately, that's not what APB is going to be all about.

In fact, a closer look at this game can makes us wonder: Is it really possible to compare the unbridled carnage and hot coffee of Grand Theft Auto with the gameplay of ABP? Not really, according to Realtime Worlds creative director Dave Jones, who spoke about APB with Chris Kohler from Wired's GameLife blog. Jones told Wired, "There's nothing to compare it to, but that's kind of what we try to do with our games."

Continue reading All Points Bulletin chaos to balance out with Criminal and Enforcer dynamic

All Points Bulletin chaos to balance out with Criminal and Enforcer dynamic originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: APB gets the Paul Barnett hype treatment

Shawn Schuster — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Trailers, Video, Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, All Points Bulletin, Crime

At E3 this entire week, EA is promoting their biggest and brightest new titles at their enormous booth in the LA Convention Center's South Hall. This includes two titles we're excited about: SWTOR and APB. To help promote APB yesterday, EA's Paul Barnett got the crowd hyped up for the game with some free t-shirts and a couple Suicide Girls to help toss them out to the audience.

On top of this, APB's Dave Jones was interviewed by Paul on the stage, and two short trailers were shown. The first one was basically what we saw last year, showcasing the amazing character customization options available in the MMO. Yet, we were also shown some in-game footage with characters created by the APB testing community basically, the new trailer we showed you earlier in the week). You can check out our shaky-cam footage of the event right after the jump below.

Continue reading E3 2009: APB gets the Paul Barnett hype treatment

E3 2009: APB gets the Paul Barnett hype treatment originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Realtime World's Dave Jones speaks on APB

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, All Points Bulletin, Crime

The announcement of EA handling APB's marketing and distribution was a pretty big one for Realtime Worlds, and creative director Dave Jones was on hand at EA's press conference yesterday to speak with Gamasutra about the game, the company, and the developments of APB.

Game wise, Dave has spoken a bit further on how the law vs. criminal battles will work out for the game. Criminals will be able to battle against criminals, but enforcers will never find themselves matched against one another. This will open up the possibility of multiple front wars with other criminal factions, rather than a simple two front game.

Also, the game will feature large scale battles as well as "metagroups" where the game determines balancing for players who are doing exceptionally well. Dave's example was a group of 5 elite players might be matched against 15 normal ranking players, just to give the elite players a thrill and the 15 a chance against these 5.

The full interview with Gamasutra goes into the company itself, partnering options, as well as more info on APB itself.

E3 2009: Realtime World's Dave Jones speaks on APB originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC08 Highlights: Age of Conan, Requiem: Bloodymare and All Points Bulletin

Dan O'Halloran — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:59:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Galleries, Podcasts, Screenshots, Age of Conan, Business models, Events, real-world, Interviews, New titles, Previews, PvP, News items, Hands-on, Massively highlights, All Points Bulletin, Crime, Requiem: Bloodymare

Age of Conan

Conan gets mounted

One of the hottest tickets for MMO enthusiasts at GDC08 was the Funcom session showing off new features in their upcoming Age of Conan. Mounted combat was the eye candy of the day. Game Director Gaute Godager walked our team through the basics of head to head battles astride War Horses, War Mammoths and War Rhinos. For the reading-averse, you can also listen to an audio recording of the presentation.

Gallery: GDC 08: Age of Conan Preview

Continue reading GDC08 Highlights: Age of Conan, Requiem: Bloodymare and All Points Bulletin

GDC08 Highlights: Age of Conan, Requiem: Bloodymare and All Points Bulletin originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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