APB Could Be the Base for a Bigger MMO Experience

Realtime Worlds is said to be, at last, pretty much ready to release All Points Bulletin, its gang-oriented action MMO. But the vision on which the development team is working is bigger than that with a full city simulated and the conflict between law and criminals being just a facet of the game world. The developers are saying that they are putting together a game base that can later be expanded indefinitely.

EJ Moreland, who is the lead designer on All Points Bulletin, told Gamasutra that “What we've done is we've said, ‘We want to use this to support this great action game - this really different online type of game - and then, once the game releases, based on what the players’ feedback is, we're going to go in every direction we can.”

If the initial release of APB, which is being handled by Electronic Arts, is successful, then the same game concept and technology can be used to create new districts, some oriented towards racing, some towards fashion shows, some towards private spaces for all the subscribing gamers.

In other words, Realtime Worlds could be building a whole living city using APB as a base. The decision to create the action-oriented section first is based on commercial aspects, with more players interested in shooting than in online social spaces, it seems.

APB is set to offer a wide array of customization options for all the characters created for the game, with things such as the visibility of veins adjustable, and the gameplay is centered on gang conflict. The game uses the Unreal 3 engine and the developers are promising that no lag will impede the action although as many as 100 players can be engaged in a battle at the same time. All Points Bulletin is set to arrive in the first quarter of 2010.