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E3 2009: EA and Realtime Worlds partner on All Points Bulletin
We knew that Realtime Worlds, the company behind the urban crime MMO All Points Bulletin would have something to announce and show at E3 2009, we just weren't sure of what to expect. That announcement came today at the Electronic Arts press conference. Imagine our surprise when Realtime Worlds creative director Dave Jones (who you may know as the creator of GTA and Crackdown) appeared on stage to announce that EA will be publishing All Points Bulletin. The announcement was followed up with a rather stunning trailer, depicting all manner of urban badasses. Tattoos. Fast cars. Lots of guns. Criminals and Enforcement fighting for the streets in a vast, open urban environment. The game will accommodate 10,000 players per world, divided into 100 player district maps. If you're a fan of games like GTA and Saint's Row, you will be blown away by All Points Bulletin.All Points Bulletin has a newly revamped site, with screenshots and a game features page, and now hosts an APB video podcast from the developers. The game is slated for a PC release in early 2010. Update: Want to see more? Flip through our E3 2009 APB gallery and check out the game trailer below the cut.%Gallery-64700%
EA publishing Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin
Just announced at EA's press conference, we now know that Realtime Worlds' ambitious MMO All Points Bulletin will be backed by an equally ambitious company. Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones took the stage to announce that EA will help the 100-player MMO reach awaiting gamers sometime next year, which is the current release window EA is listing for the game.
GTA MMO would be a profitable venture, analyst suggests
In a recent set of statements to Gamasutra, Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners, brought up the profitability of an MMO set within the Grand Theft Auto franchise.While Hickey notes that success would only be possible if Take-Two partnered up with another company who had a well designed infrastructure and MMO experience, the whole paragraph is certainly a nod in the direction of online crime games at large -- a genre relatively untapped in the MMO landscape.Certainly a Grand Theft Auto MMO would be the new gorilla of the online space, one can't easily forget about the stylized and anticipated offering from Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, All Points Bulletin. A GTA MMO would certainly be nice, but APB will certainly be setting the bar for all upcoming crime MMOs, regardless of a GTA entry into the scene.
Realtime Worlds: APB at E3, first in-game screen released
(click to MMO-size) Looks like we'll be seeing more capri pants from All Points Bulletin developer Realtime Worlds in a few short weeks, as the company announced this morning its intentions to attend E3 2009. RTW community manager Chris 'Ulrich' Dye dropped the knowledge on APB fansite APB Evolved, along with the "first in-game screenshot" of APB (seen above), saying, "Yes, we WILL be at E3 this year and this will mark the start of lots more news, activities and information coming out about APB: All Points Bulletin."He also teases a bit of info on the game, noting that the screen provided is meant "to give you another look at the awesome character customizations that will make up a large part of APB," rather than just show you some more folks holdin' gats. Like you, we're stuck waiting for another two weeks to find out more. Thanks, Realtime Worlds!
All Points Bulletin announces E3 appearance
The normally quiet development team at Realtime Worlds, the creators of the upcoming GTA styled MMO All Points Bulletin has released a bold announcement regarding their game accompanied by an equally bold screenshot -- APB will be shown at E3 this year.In a statement made to fansite APB Evolved, Chris "Ulric" Dye has said that their showing at E3 will also mark a turning point in the game's media releases, as it will mark the start of a large release of news, activities, and information regarding APB. In addition, the above screenshot, the first of in-game footage, was released to APB Evolved to highlight the character customization features that will be included in the game. We're not that keen on shaved heads, but we certainly would like to wrap our hands around that shotgun. If this is just a taste of what APB has to offer their players, we can't wait to see more.
Realtime Worlds teases APB appearance at E3
We've been hearing rumors of Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds' appearance in the upcoming Microsoft E3 Conference for a while now, though we've heard no confirmation of All Points Bulletin's involvement in the highly anticipated, green-hued showcase. However, Eurogamer recently got an intriguing response from Realtime after inquiring about the crime-filled MMO's MicroCon debut.Realtime Worlds boss Colin MacDonald responded to Eurogamer's query, saying, "I couldn't possibly comment at the moment," but went on to add, "if we happened to be going, I'm sure we would make it known before too much longer, and we'd certainly give Eurogamer a shout to try to meet up." Jeez, you guys. Get a room.
Gary Dale takes CEO role at Realtime Worlds
Realtime Worlds put out an APB (get it, like the game it's making?) for a new CEO and now Gary Dale has answered the call. If Dale's name is familiar to you, it's likely thanks to his previous job: Chief operating officer of Take-Two, though he also served as the European managing director of Capcom.We'd like to humbly suggest that Dale's first official act should be putting higher-res pictures of himself on the internet for bloggers to put funny captions on when they write about him. Ask Mike Gallagher, it's totally worth it.
Rumorong: David Reeves denies move to Realtime Worlds
Shortly after he announced he was leaving his gig at SCEE, it was rumored that the outspoken David Reeves would move to a "senior position" at Scottish dev Realtime Worlds. Speaking to Develop magazine, Reeves has shot down those rumors, saying that he hadn't heard of the studio a week or so ago.Now, that's not to say the rumors are necessarily untrue. Even if he had never heard of the company, it's possible Reeves was being lead there by a series of omens and portents, or by a spectral white wolf, vision-quest style. But even with our abiding belief in the paranormal, it seems unlikely.
MTV Multiplayer speaks with MMO devs looking to attract shooter fans
Undoubtedly, the developers of games like All Points Bulletin, The Agency, CrimeCraft and Earthrise would like shooter fans to give their game a try. And with so many of these titles on the way, it can be a little difficult to know which one may be for you. So, MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John went out and got each developer's take on why they think shooter fans should look into their respective games.Not all of these games take the same shooter mentality approach, but that's a good thing. Variety is of course the spice of life, especially when those things involve itchy digital trigger fingers. You can be sure we'll be bringing you even more information in the future so you can decide which of these games is for you.
The Digital Continuum: Evolving past the Diku design Part 2
The other movement of change sweeping through developers' design choices is the near removal of classes and/or levels. EVE Online was one of the first MMOs to do away with levels, and the upcoming All Points Bulletin and The Secret World appear to be doing the same. Now, titles like Champions Online and Fallen Earth are doing away with the idea of a class system altogether.
Rumor: Ex-Sony Europe bigwig moving to All Points Bulletin
It seems like Realtime Worlds' upcoming crime, cops and online drive-by MMO All Points Bulletin is attracting some rather high profile attention. Or at least, that's the rumor floating around right now. Whispers abound of recently dethroned President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, David Reeves heading off for a "senior" position at Realtime Worlds have got us stroking our chins.If true, this would mean that Reeves -- like much of the MMO community -- has taken notice of the potential of this game. Potential for copious amounts of success, otherwise known as raining dollars and uh, euros.We may be looking a bit too deeply into this, we admit. But when it comes to games that headbutt the mold, we're really more than happy to make a couple leaps of logic for the sake of our geeky conscious. Now if you'll excuse us, we must return to our shrine dedicated to wishing a good Shadowrun and/or Fallout MMO game into existence.
Anti-Aliased: You don't need PvP to be successful, honest pt. 2
Screw PvP combat, we need PvP conflict The minute you hear about PvP, you know what it is. It's groups of people bashing each other in the face like cavemen. While that's all well and good, combat is only one part of a spectrum of player vs. player activities. We need to stop focusing solely on the idea of PvP combat and perhaps look towards the larger picture of PvP conflict. Final Fantasy XI proves this point through the use of the conquest system. Players weren't bashing each other's face in, yet were participating in a conflict that changed how the game played and simultaneously provided rewards. On the other side of the galaxy, EVE Online has become notorious for "trader combat." Where players go against one another in order to get goods out to the market and make a profit. Above those acts come social combat, where players make alliances and enemies as they participate in the other aspects of the game. Exploration could even go in this category, as players race through uncharted space to find caches of resources. These ideas aren't unheard of, but they are unexplored. One of the best examples of how we don't make full use of our genres is the infamous rogue class. Rogues, by definition, are stealthy, thieving, and full of trickery. Their original portrayal in the genre is mostly through non-combat actions, like stealing. Yet, rogues never steal in our online games. Even if they do steal, it's almost always from monsters and not players. "Once we evolve how we approach PvP, we can start truly integrating the system into our designs, rather than continually tacking on battlegrounds and combat objectives and applauding them as elegant design." So why not include pickpocketing? Is it because we don't want to limit it to one class or cause an uproar when one player can steal your stuff? Why not let all players have the option, and actually have a pickpocketing mini-game. Why not expand the concept of "illegal activities" and actually start to develop a justice system, where players can become guards and other players can attempt to get away with small crimes? Of course, we'll get to see an example of how well this will work when Realtime Worlds launches All Points Bulletin, but it is something to think about for our current line of MMOs. Past the legal system, there are other methods of conflict. Card games, price haggling at player run shops, even running an actual shop or a locale can give players a brand new perspective of conflict and simultaneously provide another sink for virtual cash in the economy. The synopsis Don't feel that a game needs to have PvP in order to be viable. Games that can level their challenges (like Final Fantasy's level capped bosses, which make them eternally challenging) and can also present strong, solid methods of entertainment (like Bioshock's emphasis on storytelling and single-player objectives, rather than splitting resources between single-player and multi-player.) But PvP as a concept needs to perhaps become broader, centering more on areas of dynamic conflict rather than stagnant combat situations. Even facerolling on your keyboard against someone else facerolling on their keyboard becomes old -- especially when gear differences lock out true, meaningful engagements. Once we evolve how we approach PvP, we can start truly integrating the system into our designs, rather than continually tacking on battlegrounds and combat objectives and applauding them as elegant design. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who knows people will scream about how much of a carebare he is in the comment boxes, just because they didn't read the whole article. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.
APB Rumor: Reeves moving to Realtime Worlds
VG247 has heard whispers on the north winds that David Reeves will be taking a position at Scotland-based Realtime Worlds, which is currently developing APB. Reeves won't be taking just any position, but a "senior position." Well, if true, it's hard to imagine ex-Sony President and CEO Reeves working in QA.VG247 seems to be putting its own rep behind this, saying that despite being a "rumor," to not "say [they] didn't warn you." The current party line is that Reeves is "retiring." We've contacted Realtime Worlds for any further details and will update as soon as we hear anything.
The Digital Continuum: What's up with APB?
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with All Points Bulletin and the only reason I'm bothered enough to consider worrying about a game that we know only fractions of is because those fractions are amazingly potent pieces of excitement. The depth of customization, the level-less progression wrapped around a GTA style game make for powerful appeal.I was hoping that because it'd been a year since the last GDC, when All Points Bulletin was first revealed to a dumbstruck media, we would be treated with a delightful updated look at the game. That just wasn't the case at GDC 2009, and frankly it has me slightly worried.
Realtime Worlds grows its operations team, working on reducing MMO downtimes
Anyone who's played an MMO for a month or so will be familiar with weekly maintenance -- that wonderful time of the week when we have to do something else other than that play our favorite game. According to gamesindustry.biz, Realtime Worlds (developer of All Points Bulletin) has recently made some operations additions by way of Patrick Bays as manager of game operations and Will Leverett as director of customer service. Both men have worked at Origin Systems and NCsoft in the past, although also had a stint with Turbine as well.This is important because Bays is looking to completely remove the weekly maintenance every other MMO suffers from. "As a gamer myself, I don't find six or eight hours downtime every week acceptable, so our system will allow our players to enjoy our games round the clock." said Bays. Of course, both Bays and Leverett have plenty of experience in the MMO industry -- so hopefully this isn't just talk.Hopefully we'll find out soon, even though All Points Bulletin has yet to announce a publisher or any kind of launch window. Although if we have to, we'll make a few sacrifices in order to see this game become a reality.
Vivox to provide voice solutions for urban crime MMO All Points Bulletin
If you're a fan of GTA-style urban crime games, you might be interested in what Realtime Worlds is cooking up for the MMO space: All Points Bulletin, which could very well prove to be the online evolution of single-player games like Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown. While new details on this title are still light, Vivox announced today that they'll be providing voice solutions for APB. The integration of Vivox with the All Points Bulletin client will include voice fonts, where players will be able to alter their voices to better fit their character. Vivox has already established its presence in EVE Online and Second Life, and recently announced plans to extend gaming VOIP to web browsers as well. There could be interesting times ahead with this agreement between Vivox and Realtime Worlds in All Points Bulletin.
Realtime Worlds puts out an APB for job seekers at GDC
It may be an awful time to be searching for a job, but Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds is apparently doing just fine -- and looking to share the wealth. If you're interested, all you have to do is A) attend GDC, B) be good at some aspect of game development (obviously) and C) be willing to temporarily relocate to Scotland. In a press release titled "Realtime Worlds Offers Lifeline in Credit Crunch," the company announced plans to look for "more than 40 additional staff" at next week's Game Developers Conference. "In contrast to many other companies and sectors at the moment, our biggest challenge is in recruiting staff of the calibre, and in the quantities we need," John Duffie, Head of PR, said in the release. "Already 25% of our workforce comes from outside the UK because we aren't able to find everyone we need here." Contract employees from outside the UK will receive "free quality accommodation" in Scotland during their tenure, and a free return flight afterward. The new positions are for All Points Bulletin and one other unannounced project.
A look at the MMO coming attractions in 2009
Now that we're comfortably settling in to our new digs at casa de 2009, it seems like the best time to reflect on what we have to look forward to in the coming year. Eurogamer has done the dirty work for us, as they've compiled a handy article detailing the coming attractions.All Points Bulletin tops their list as the star attraction, citing enthusiasm for the GTA-style action and depth of customization. SOE's The Agency and Free Realms, along with Cryptic's Champions Online and NetDevil's Jumpgate Evolution round out the remaining top spots on this list, for varying reasons. Some honorable mentions include Aion, Darkfall, EVE's Walking in Stations expansion, Earthrise, Global Agenda and many more expected to see the light of day this year or next. Will all of these games actually make it to a 2009 release, or will 2010 truly be the year of epic MMO launches?
New official website for All Points Bulletin opens up
Signs of forthcoming news are beginning to make their appearance for All Points Bulletin as Realtime Worlds has recently updated the title's official website. There's even a tease for eventual forums! Oh, how we await the heated discussion of whether or not dual-wielding pistols should be nerfed. All semi-sincere joking aside, the new website is leaps and bounds above the old from a visual standpoint. Anyone looking at the current page will definitely get the impression that this is a well-funded title. We're also particularly fond of how responsive the high bandwidth version of the site runs.Don't overlook the handy link at the bottom-center of the first page that allows any interested parties to, uh, register their interest, aka registering for some sort of eventual beta event. We know, it's some heady stuff.[Thanks, Tammy]
The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation
Is the MMO fantasy genre finally ready to relax and take its long overdue vacation? It does seem to be the case, as nearly all of the highly anticipated titles in the coming years are exceptionally not high fantasy or even really general fantasy. So while the sun is setting on the age of fantasy, a new dawn appears to be rising elsewhere. With it comes a tidal wave of new genres into the industry, some new and others a bit more familiar. Don't believe or agree with me? Keep reading and maybe you'll change your mind.
