APB Reloaded Announced on GamersFirst Twitter
APB
GamersFirst announced that the closed beta of APB Reloaded, a rehash of the original in free-to-play form, will begin as soon as next month. Information will be emailed to interested people (most likely former players of the game itself and other MMO subscribers). In February, closed beta servers will resurface.
GamersFirst told Joystiq that its first priority is to get the game started and live again. After that, they will release a patch and open up some of the zones originally meant for subscribed players only. They will introduce an item shop of sorts, or “microtransaction plans” and offerings, in order to entice players and raise revenue
For those of you whom are unfamiliar with APB, I do not blame you. This game started out as a promising cops-and-robbers-esque online game developed by Realtime Worlds, headed by the mastermind behind the Grand Theft Auto series. It had a lot of potential but had trouble finding a publisher for a while. Once it found a publisher, the game was eventually released and placed out onto the market. Soon after, gamers began glitching and abusing hacks within the game, which ruined the experience for many legitimate players which only led to quitting and lost profits for the company. The glitches, hacking, and overall poor execution of the game eventually led to its demise and I believe bankruptcy.
A sad story for an online game with so much promise. However, APB Reloaded will be a second chance for the series. Maybe this time it will succeed.