14 DAY TRIAL // All Points Bulletin from Realtime Worlds is said to be the closest thing to a Grand Theft Auto MMO we're going to have until Rockstar finally decides to take the big step and create an open world multiplayer experience built on their very successful franchise.
And now the developers are saying that they plan to create a game which will be incorporating Facebook as a “major community tool”. It's not clear how the popular social networking platform will be used, but it could be a great way to drawn people to the game. Last.fm is already said to be incorporated in All Points Bulletin, with the game using it to power the in game radios and with constant checks when people pass each other by to see if they have listened to each other's music. Facebook could also be used as a tool to show off the data of the various characters, connected with the data of the player that created them.
The announcement also reveals that the game is closer to getting into beta than ever. Chris Dye, who is a community manager, says that “In the middle of September we moved into the final phase of internal alpha testing with regular play tests involving 100+ employees enjoying the various elements of APB currently available. The aims of this phase are to tidy up the current experiences whilst we prepare to move out of alpha, in the future phases we will begin the tentative process of allowing others into the game. Initially this will be a very core, select number of trusted friends of employees, but does mark the start of what can be considered the 'Closed' Beta stage of APB”. Check back to find out when and how you can sign up to get into the beta of All Points Bulletin.
The MMO does not have a release date yet but expecting it to hit sometime next summer could be a safe bet.