The Glade 4.0 :: View topic - APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch

Spoiler:

End of an Era Posted by APBMonkey today, 16:040

APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It's been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome!
From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support.
The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye!
- Ben 'APBMonkey' Bateman (Community Officer)

"I truly wish we had the chance to continue to craft APB into the vision we had for it. It has been a long & difficult journey but ultimately rewarding to have had the chance to try something bold and different. APB holds some great memories, from the last night of the beta, to the clans and individuals who amazed us with their creativity and sense of community. I am so sorry it had to end so quickly but hopefully the good memories will stay with us all for a long time. Thanks to all the team for the years of hard work, and to the players who contributed so much." - Dave Jones
“Please spare a thought to all the thousands of brave men and women of San Paro who despite knowing the odds, still dared to cross the street. They will be sorely missed.” - Johann van der Walt (Software Engineer: Living City)
“Thanks for sticking with us through the hard times guys, we put a huge amount of our lives into APB, but unfortunately we’re not going to get the chance to make it the game we all knew it had the potential to be. Thanks." - Rob “bobbyd” Anderberg.
"Thanks for being a creative and imaginative community, the cookies, feedback and ideas were appreciated." – Ben ' Giefster ' Skelly
"Working on APB was rewarding, frustrating, amazing, depressing, exciting, and overall, surreal. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it, but I’ve enjoyed it all the way. I hope the players enjoyed the time they had despite the short comings, and will remember the game in a good light for what it was meant to be, not quite what it turned out to be. Now just to get started on that Xbox version..." - Jon McKellan (the guy who did the loading screens)
“I had the great pleasure of working with some extremely talented people in both the Dundee and Boulder office, and for the longest time APB was our lives. It is truly sad that it ended this way ... but when you aim for the stars, you sometimes fall on your face.” - Ben Abbott, Live Producer.
"Press F to apply for Jobseekers Allowance."- Ben Hall (Development QA)
"In every way APB was a dichotomy. I have witnessed the project alter from a fragile and delicate entity used to show the world the depth of our vision through to the sturdy beast we released to the public. There were the unusual errors and crashes which are to be expected but it worked. Once in the hands of our community I have never seen something elicit such a polarisation of people. It was dismissed as overhyped and broken or else taken to heart to be loved and cherished, buoyed on by a fanaticism I was proud to have played a part in bringing to the world. Although still again among our players APB brought out both the poles in human behaviour. I bore witness to raw hatred and fury, arrogance and mean spirits but I was also delighted to experience the kindest side of human nature as players came to the aid of others when in a tight spot or they created works of art with the tools provided.
In all APB was a fantastic experience with an incredible team and it is one that I will always cherish and has added to who I am. Thank you everyone involved from our excellent players to our incredible dev team."- Conor Crowley (Senior QA, System design assistant, Tech support, in-game support, Overall CS, 1 man Publishing QA team, Tea Boy, Morale Officer)
"I’m sad to see the project go. Of all the games I’ve worked on, APB was probably the one with the most potential. I genuinely believe that given more time, we could have turned APB into the game we all wanted it to be. I’d like to thank the community for all their support, the good times I’ve had playing against them, and for the amazing (and often hilarious) user-generated content that they’ve created.
I’d also like to thank the rest of the team for all of their hard-work, and for generally being great people to work with. " -Bryan Robertson (Gameplay Programmer)

Author:	Darkroland [ Thu Sep 16, 2010 1:29 pm ]
Post subject:	APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch
Did anyone try out this MMO? That's a quick death, too bad. Spoiler: End of an Era Posted by APBMonkey today, 16:040 APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It's been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome! From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support. The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye! - Ben 'APBMonkey' Bateman (Community Officer) "I truly wish we had the chance to continue to craft APB into the vision we had for it. It has been a long & difficult journey but ultimately rewarding to have had the chance to try something bold and different. APB holds some great memories, from the last night of the beta, to the clans and individuals who amazed us with their creativity and sense of community. I am so sorry it had to end so quickly but hopefully the good memories will stay with us all for a long time. Thanks to all the team for the years of hard work, and to the players who contributed so much." - Dave Jones “Please spare a thought to all the thousands of brave men and women of San Paro who despite knowing the odds, still dared to cross the street. They will be sorely missed.” - Johann van der Walt (Software Engineer: Living City) “Thanks for sticking with us through the hard times guys, we put a huge amount of our lives into APB, but unfortunately we’re not going to get the chance to make it the game we all knew it had the potential to be. Thanks." - Rob “bobbyd” Anderberg. "Thanks for being a creative and imaginative community, the cookies, feedback and ideas were appreciated." – Ben ' Giefster ' Skelly "Working on APB was rewarding, frustrating, amazing, depressing, exciting, and overall, surreal. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it, but I’ve enjoyed it all the way. I hope the players enjoyed the time they had despite the short comings, and will remember the game in a good light for what it was meant to be, not quite what it turned out to be. Now just to get started on that Xbox version..." - Jon McKellan (the guy who did the loading screens) “I had the great pleasure of working with some extremely talented people in both the Dundee and Boulder office, and for the longest time APB was our lives. It is truly sad that it ended this way ... but when you aim for the stars, you sometimes fall on your face.” - Ben Abbott, Live Producer. "Press F to apply for Jobseekers Allowance."- Ben Hall (Development QA) "In every way APB was a dichotomy. I have witnessed the project alter from a fragile and delicate entity used to show the world the depth of our vision through to the sturdy beast we released to the public. There were the unusual errors and crashes which are to be expected but it worked. Once in the hands of our community I have never seen something elicit such a polarisation of people. It was dismissed as overhyped and broken or else taken to heart to be loved and cherished, buoyed on by a fanaticism I was proud to have played a part in bringing to the world. Although still again among our players APB brought out both the poles in human behaviour. I bore witness to raw hatred and fury, arrogance and mean spirits but I was also delighted to experience the kindest side of human nature as players came to the aid of others when in a tight spot or they created works of art with the tools provided. In all APB was a fantastic experience with an incredible team and it is one that I will always cherish and has added to who I am. Thank you everyone involved from our excellent players to our incredible dev team."- Conor Crowley (Senior QA, System design assistant, Tech support, in-game support, Overall CS, 1 man Publishing QA team, Tea Boy, Morale Officer) "I’m sad to see the project go. Of all the games I’ve worked on, APB was probably the one with the most potential. I genuinely believe that given more time, we could have turned APB into the game we all wanted it to be. I’d like to thank the community for all their support, the good times I’ve had playing against them, and for the amazing (and often hilarious) user-generated content that they’ve created. I’d also like to thank the rest of the team for all of their hard-work, and for generally being great people to work with. " -Bryan Robertson (Gameplay Programmer)

Author:	Roophus Gunthar [ Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:31 pm ]
Post subject:
That's got to be pretty depressing to see your project go to crap like that one did for them. Reviews were just terrible. They claimed the game "simply wasn't fun." Many said stuff along the lines of "you can patch bugs, but you simply can't patch not being fun."

Author:	shuyung [ Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:57 pm ]
Post subject:
I wonder if they'll release the source code.

Author:	Midgen [ Thu Sep 16, 2010 5:41 pm ]
Post subject:
I had never heard about this prior to this thread. Am I to understand that this is like Grand Theft Auto in MMO form? Heh, I can't imagine a game I'd rather NOT play.

Author:	Roophus Gunthar [ Thu Sep 16, 2010 6:33 pm ]
Post subject:	Re:
Midgen wrote: I had never heard about this prior to this thread. Am I to understand that this is like Grand Theft Auto in MMO form? Heh, I can't imagine a game I'd rather NOT play. To an extent, it was like GTA. However, the premise of the game involved more of a good guys and bad guys theme. It wanted to be more than just a GTA clone, and you can tell by the design. However, it really just turned into an MMO that wasn't very fun, according to most sources.

The Glade 4.0 https://gladerebooted.net/

APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch https://gladerebooted.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4166	Page 1 of 1

Author:	Dalantia [ Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:18 pm ]
Post subject:
Very good customization, poor game mechanics and matching system, so I hear.

Author:	Odom Leah [ Fri Sep 17, 2010 1:40 am ]
Post subject:	Re: APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch
This is like a bad dream/reminder of the project I was a part of back in 2003-2004 -- Horizons . Although still around in some form (Istaria something something) I never played again, nor cared to, after many of us were let go 5 weeks after release.

Author:	Talya [ Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:40 am ]
Post subject:	Re: APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch
Odom Leah wrote: This is like a bad dream/reminder of the project I was a part of back in 2003-2004 -- Horizons . Although still around in some form (Istaria something something) I never played again, nor cared to, after many of us were let go 5 weeks after release. I had such high hopes for Horizons. Never ended up even trying it. They could't deliver on any of their design promises at all, really, from what i understand. That was the start of my skepticism when it came to new MMOs...

Author:	Shelgeyr [ Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:15 am ]
Post subject:
Aye, I was also reminded of Horizons when I read the OP; and Horizons was the last time I put any faith in a game before I actually played it. That game was such a disappointment

Author:	Darkroland [ Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:09 am ]
Post subject:	Re: APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch
Looks like people are picking over the remains, seeing if there's anything worth getting. Quote: MMO title All Points Bulletin failed, and took its developer with it. So why on Earth would a company as successful as Epic Games be interested in buying the rights to the game? A report on the BBC says that, according to a "source close to the development team", a few companies are showing interest in picking at the corpse of the game, seeing if there's a pocket watch or gold filling to be had. One of the those companies is Epic Games, the studio behind one of the industry's most popular graphics engines (and the Gears of War and Unreal Tournament series). Adding to this speculation is a Eurogamer report, citing a "Dundee development source" (Realtime were based in Dundee, Scotland) that says "[Realtime boss] Dave Jones and Epic is quite the talking point in town. He and Mr Rein are good chums and have worked together on many levels for years and years and years. And he's not going to raise much money/staff here in the near future." Eurogamer also report that Jones recently moved to the US. Being both catastrophically unpopular and lacking in any real memorable hook, it's tough imagining why Epic would want the rights to APB. Unless they just like the name!

Author:	Kaffis Mark V [ Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:38 am ]
Post subject:
Or unless the engine was decent. From what I read (after having no clue what this game was while reading the OP), the customization was pretty good, for instance. Buying the rights to the game would give a company a head start on all the art assets and rendering code to achieve same, for instance.

Author:	Corolinth [ Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:05 am ]
Post subject:	Re: APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch
Talya wrote: That was the start of my skepticism when it came to new MMOs... For me it was Asheron's Call.

Author:	Odom Leah [ Sun Sep 19, 2010 2:55 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch
Quote: I had such high hopes for Horizons. Never ended up even trying it. They could't deliver on any of their design promises at all, really, from what i understand. That was the start of my skepticism when it came to new MMOs... Design was changed before I arrived in 2003. We had the choice of waiting for an April 2004 release but I don't think it would have mattered. Of course there wouldn't have been any $$ to pay us and working 6 to 7 days a week from 8am to 10pm most days for free wouldn't have cut it with my landlord. So game was released in December 2003, bugs, lack of content, and all that jazz. Funny thing was the day we got let go we got handed a copy of the game. Geeeeee thanks for all your hard work -- here's a copy of the game you'll never play. Also got a lifetime membership but again, didn't really care to play it. I'd like the last year of my life back please. Had a GF break up with me because of lack of attention. Can't say I blamed her. I was literally never around.

Author:	Rodahn [ Sun Sep 19, 2010 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:
I'm kinda curious what killed APB. Unless I just overlooked it, I didn't see where they stated a reason.

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Author:	Darkroland [ Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:17 pm ]
Post subject:	Re:
Rodahn wrote: I'm kinda curious what killed APB. Unless I just overlooked it, I didn't see where they stated a reason. I'm pretty sure it was "NO ONE PAID MONEY TO PLAY IT." I hang out with a LOT of gamers, and I never heard ANYONE reference this game.

Author:	Darkroland [ Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:18 am ]
Post subject:	Re: APB shuts down less than 3 months after launch