Last week, rumors began to circulate that Realtime Worlds, developer of Crackdown and All Points Bulletin was in a wee bit of trouble. Actually, the rumors indicated that the company was in dire straits, laying off all of its employees for newly announced MMOG MyWorld and cutting dozens from other projects. The gossip also whispered that All Points Bulletin, the just-released, open-world, player-created content MMOG would be put up for sale.
We laid off the report after reading a statement from the company addressing the concerns. In short, the company stated that “we had to restructure the company to make it so that we can focus totally on APB. APB is still going strong and we fully intend to support 100%.” Some MyWorld employees had been laid off, but the company said the APB staff was untouched and that development would continue.
Someone was blowing smoke, because GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that the company has indeed entered Administration Mode. That’s not some kickass multiplayer mode or debug menu. It means that the company is now legally allowed to duck calls from creditors as it attempts to right a sinking ship.
Begbies-Traynor Group is advising the restructuring process and is expected to release a full statement later today.
I guess the character creation and customization wasn’t enough gameplay to keep the game from hemorrhaging subscribers. Or to get them to pay for “action” time.
Snarky comments aside, our hearts go out to those that have lost their jobs.