SEPT. 15, 2010 • Only a month after Scotland-based developer Realtime Worlds went into administration – the British form of bankruptcy – its APB MMOG was shut down. The game had been live for less than three months. No buyers were found to acquire the MMOG.
Impact: Realtime Worlds and the APB MMOG show the risk associated with high end development. Over the past five years, Realtime had received at least $80 million in funding, the latest a $50 million round in 2008. Most of all that presumably went into development of APB. APB’s final epitaph is that there were 300 expressions of interest in acquiring the MMO, six of them serious. Of that number, none expressing interest believed they could make the APB viable from a business standpoint with only 130,000 active players remaining. Project MyWorld, Realtime Worlds other project, was acquired in early September by undisclosed investors. The fact that such an expensive product could be shut down after finally launching is simply a sign of the times. Putting $50 to $100 million into a high-end MMO is not enough.
