APB Shutting Down For Good

Realtime Worlds community officer Ben Bateman just popped on the APB official forums to present this sad bit of news: The game is shutting down for good. In his statement, Bateman says, "APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end."

Apparently the servers are still up for the time being, so if you’ve got the game, you’re encouraged to hop in and pour one out for Realtime Worlds’ gangsta-sim. We’ve just got one question: what happens to all of those "Realtime Points" consumers have purchased with their real-world money?

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APB Tries Insidious New Form Of In-Game Advertising

You guys rolled over for product placement in paid games. Want to know where that gets you? Streaming audio ads while you’re playing a game. How do you feel about that?

If you’re not sure how you feel, you can play APB to find out. The cops-and-robbers gunfights-and-car-chases MMO, which comes out next week, will feature ingame radio commercials every three hours. That’s in addition to your subscription fee. Here’s an explanation of how it works.

The advertisements-in-paid-games issue is over. You let it happen. The toothpaste is out of that particular tube and now it’s just a matter of how long you’re going to let game companies keep squeezing.

(Thanks Rock Paper Shotgun!)

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