14 DAY TRIAL // All Points Bulletin, the upcoming city-based MMO from Realtime Worlds, is set to get an open beta in the coming months and has a released date set for the early months of 2010 but precious little details have been offered by the developers or its publishing partner, Electronic Arts, regarding gameplay. It seems that there is a move away from only offering a subscription model, with Realtime Worlds partnering up with a company called Vindicia, which provides anti-fraud measures and billing services.
Vindicia is offering a solution called Cashbox, allowing those using it to manage virtual goods sales, micro transactions and subscriptions at the same time. The company says that it will help the creators of APB get the most out of their product. Even in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website of the APB there is talking about a variety of revenue models, talking about how “The price and payment model have not been finalized yet but we can say it won’t be the traditional monthly subscription model.”
Gene Hoffman, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Vindicia, said that “Launching an online game is a great challenge for any game developer. […] Merchants like Realtime Worlds are building commerce models that maximize customer retention and revenue, and Vindicia is ideally positioned to support how their products reach their fullest potential.” Which, frankly, tells us very little about the actual way the two companies are aiming to innovate when it comes to the monetization of the upcoming MMO.
APB is set to be sold at retail under the EA Partners brand and will initially arrive only on the PC. Depending on the popularity of the title, which focuses on urban gang versus police conflicts, Realtime Worlds might be ready to create versions for home consoles.