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APB To Reopen As Free-To-Play
It's official: The corpse of short-lived action/MMO APB has been purchased and is set to be reanimated by free MMO publisher GamersFirst. APB: Reloaded will be developed by new U.S. studio Reloaded Productions, a subsidiary of GamersFirst that doesn't appear to have any previous titles under its belt. Provided the right kind of lightning storm passes over Reloaded's mountain laboratory, APB will rise from the grave in the first half of 2011.
The purchase agreement between GamersFirst and the administrators overseeing Realtime Worlds' final arrangements includes language that takes care of all back pay and holiday wages for former Realtime Worlds employees. It sucks enough to lose your job; we're glad to hear that those developers are at least getting the money they're owed.
I'll admit that I didn't think anyone would buy APB to have the game itself. I wrongfully assumed that the underlying technology was more attractive to prospective buyers, given the design and gameplay issues that limited the game's audience in the first place. GamersFirst obviously feels differently, and it'll be interesting to see if a free-to-play model allows APB to find a profitable niche.
Have any questions for GamersFirst? Put 'em in the comments below and if they're any good I'll put them to the executive I'm interviewing later this afternoon. Note that I've got plenty of snark left in my personal reserves, so we're covered on sarcastic "How are you planning on making the game fun?" questions already.
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