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Epic Games in talks to buy APB
eyeswideopen
Member Posts: 2,414
Rumor: Epic Games in talks to buy APB
by Justin Olivetti 
Sep 17th 2010 (3 hours ago)
Could the Gears of War folks be the knight in shining armor that doomed APB desperately needs? According to BBC, Epic Games is possibly interested in scooping up Realtime Worlds' MMO, although nothing is confirmed at this point. Realtime Worlds abruptly announced yesterday that APB was to be shut down today, sending shockwaves through the community.
While Epic Games is not commenting on any possible negotiations, a spokesperson confirmed that Epic's CEO, Mark Rein, is a fan of the game. "Mark absolutely loves APB, and everyone here loved what they saw. We've got our hands full of Gears of War 3, Bullet Storm and the recently announced Project Sword. If any talks like that are going on, then they would be confidential," Dana Cowley, Epic's spokesperson, said. Rein was outspoken about his enjoyment of the game at PAX last year.
Epic Games may also have a vested interest in the technology powering APB. We'll be keeping our ears to the ground on this one if anything further develops.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Comments
but....why?
it's not a bad game but it's so damn shalow and repetitive.
Perhaps because the framework is already there... adapting it to have more depth and originatliy shouldn't be hard for a company with the experience of Epic.
Maybe they might add something more than just customization.
RealTime Worlds could never have made this game work if someone gave them multiple 100 million dollar checks.
But EPIC Games? Yeah, they could do it on a shoe string budget.
The difference between amateurs and professionals.
That's why.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
APB with Gears of War gameplay yet faster? Slap Epic Games on cover? Sounds good - put it back in dev for 6 months, tweak gameplay, add content - port to Xbox 360 - cash shop. ROI in 4-6 months?
Well, they got to be thinking along these lines anyhow.
i do hope they buy it.. i still want to play APB one day. (with additional features and depth)
Same here. If Epic does end up buying it, it will be interesting to see what they do to improve it.
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Yes, and they might also use the engine and mechanics for their next game. APB actually cost $50M to make and you could use the engine and the good things to make a good MMO more along the lines of Shadowrun or Cyberpunk.
Also a nice revamp with more missions and releasing the game as a B2P game might not be a bad idea, if they can figure out how to get more kinds of missions.
Shadowrun would be great... any decent Cyberpunk game would certainly fill a niche as well. Epic isn't generally stupid, so if they're really looking at this purchase, i'm sure they've got big plans for it.
While EPIC may scavenge the customization setup, I doubt they want the engine,since they developed it in the first place ( APB used the Unreal 3.0 engine ).
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
maybe they'll turn it into gears of war online. that would be pretty cool.
I suppose they are considering downsides before making a decision. Not sure if I can determine any, given they will likely place it into development for awhile. Maybe in tandem with live game running maybe not.
The title does have great player/content creation systems. But it shows their dev costs went into that component while others, though perhaps not minimized received less attention.
The assets and game systems are definitely worth something.
Yes, and they might also use the engine and mechanics for their next game. APB actually cost $50M to make and you could use the engine and the good things to make a good MMO more along the lines of Shadowrun or Cyberpunk.
Also a nice revamp with more missions and releasing the game as a B2P game might not be a bad idea, if they can figure out how to get more kinds of missions.
they spent 100million on APB...if they had only spent 50million they would have been able to keep the game running with the other 50million they were given.
Not really, as they'd have simply been eating into any surplus cash. I've seen companies with over £100,000,000 in the black go into administation, simply because they can't turn things around. It called cutting one's losses. An ethical company cuts its losses before completely screwing up its empoyees and creditors. They just have to prove they can't remain solvant, without stitching others up.
If anyone hears anything new please post an update.
I think most of the heavy lifting has been done. Epic could snatch this game up, throw a free to play with some kind of item shop on it and it might do well.
If anyone could spice some fun into this game it'd be Epic.. But i jus' don't know if they have the MMO experience to do so.. But imagine APB with duck and cover like Gears of War searies.. Would be awsome! lol
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta