Tuesday, August 17, 2010

APB (insert your cheap and obvious acronym here)

This wasn't entirely unexpected, unfortunately, and it's an excellent illustration of how the business model of developing online games is tremendously perilous:
Dundee-based APB developer Realtime Worlds has entered administration, GamesIndustry.biz can confirm, following the failure of the online title to draw in strong enough subscriber numbers.

The math at work here is just staggering--a five-year development cycle, a total of $101M secured in funding for the company since February 2008, and fifty days after the game is released, boom goes the dynamite.

And in case you're wondering, "entering administration" in the U.K. isn't exactly the same thing as bankruptcy in the U.S., but it's close enough to understand what's happening.

The game is still live, but it's hard to imagine it still being played six-months from now. What a disaster.

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