Realtime worlds: I told you so.

Since 66% of this blog is situated in Scotland, and I am actually in the games Industry, I suppose we are expected to comment on this one. For those of you who don't know, APB flopped, and as such RTW went into administration. Now, did anyone NOT see this one coming? I certainly saw this... not as a pessimistic prediction, more a painfully apparent inevitability. I have seen many people come and go from this company, each time I would pose the question, "why, realtime worlds?". Just to be met with an almost blind ignorance that this company could 'do no wrong', when specifically they were working on a supposed WoW-killer MMO. An ambitious task, anyone would agree. And the premise of this WoW-killer? Cops and Robbers. Realtime worlds I roll my eyes at thee. Though I do have to tip my hat to them, during the time (years) leading up to the launch they did manage to create some hype about a 'GTA-like MMO' (lies), and at one point made micro-transactions sound like a good thing! But frankly in our heart of hearts, despite wanting this wee Scottish over-budgeted company to succeed, we all knew this idea was dry, and continuing with it was, too little, too late. Each piece of news I heard from it; such as concentration on character customisation from third party sources (i.e. T-shirts with branded logo's on them), and removal of much of the free roaming, just made me sad face inside. What were they actually doing? Making the game less and less worthwhile.

Ah well, RIP APB, we hardy cared about ye.

Cops and Robbers,

Richie X