RTW in administration

There are a lot of really ugly words going around on the APB forums the past couple of days. Administration, bankcruptcy, lay offs, and more. There are plenty of rumors, and we all know them. The pop's are down, rats are leaving the ship and the company is sinking. You know, the same rumors that flow through nearly any corporate jungle (to include my current company).

I have faith, blind faith in most cases, that the storm will pass and APB will be here for a long while and I plan to enjoy the game for the length of that journey. Even still, I wanted to put out there that if for some reason we are cursed to have joined a game that dies faster than it began I would like to fight to keep the Rain Dogs alive. If the game dies an ugly death I still plan to return to forums to write stories and chat, and experience the joy of playing something with such great people (possibly Eve considering Petra and DevlDolly play that).

Until the plug is pulled, however, I will be roaming the streets of San Paro. This game is to damned good not to be playing it!

Hang tight, Pups. We are gonna' bring the dogs to the fight.

Me being a big fan of customization games I hope APB will survive.

Thanks for bringing this up, Del. I realize that there's definitely a bit of a pall on the future of this game, as per the current tide. And although it is, of course, not what we had anticipated, it is, now, something that we may need to anticipate. Hailing from MxO, as a lot of us, I'm no stranger to holding onto the wreckage of a long-sunk ship, so I don't intend on going anywhere. Though, even with the supposed post from an 'ex-RTW' employee the other day, it seems that they might just set fire to the sea.

I'm hoping that this group, and moreso, this site, will transcend the game, as it was really created as a social hub for storytellers. If it became apparent that we needed to move, EVE would be a safe shore, though, I have always found its aesthetics to be cripplingly lonely, and am not hugely fond of any forays into roleplaying that I've experienced there in the past. The Secret World is still on my radar as a wonderful storytelling universe, but it is still a ways off.

In the absolute worst case, SOE will buy the game and allow it to bleed out slowly over far too many years. For now, please, don't worry yourselves. There is no real indication beyond wild rumors that APB is going anywhere, and if the company is in as much trouble as is claimed, it only means that they will be redoubling their efforts in a last attempt to make this game a rousing success.

I'm still having fun.

Don't forget also that RTW is responsible for Crackdown I & II, which is into the very lucrative console market, that they also strategically released alongside on APB. APB is RTW's lovechild they gave this game to us and from what I can see from their future changes they are very much in the market of pleasing those who strive through this. RTW is also an affiliate (for all their games) with EA. And if you know anything about EA, their size is more then enough to financially support a developer (like they have in the past) with Monolith and Take2 (who have now become irrational games, due to their success.)

I'm not worried about the survivability of this game. The customization of cars and vehicles is incredibly innovative, and the environments are beautiful. The news that RTW is laying people off isn't shocking. Here's a list of some of the people at RTW I've recommended for termination:

The moron that schemed up tiered weapons and upgrades without level requirements.

Whatever idiot scripted a Notoriety system that penalized criminals for carjacking npcs, shooting npcs, plowing through crowds of npcs with said stolen car, and then shooting enforcers in the face in plain sight of npcs... without including a balancing system that penalizes enforcers who carjack npcs, shoot npcs, plow through crowds of npcs in stolen cars, then standing behind a criminal in handcuffs and shooting him in the back of the head. I mean, seriously... WHAT A FUCKING IDIOT!

That one guy who made "mission impossibles", like the final stage that requires criminals to escape without commiting a crime, shooting an enforcer or being shot by an enforcer within five minutes. Also, the guy who thought evasion missions were too easy, then implimented a time penalty on criminals for being shot at.

The jackass who thought LTL was a good idea, then the other guy who thought it would be easier for criminals to rescue teammates from arrests if they shaved three seconds off of the arrest timer.

But especially the fucking tard who scripted the matchmaking system that made this match-up possible... and of course we couldn't call for backup!



/rant

Here's the most detailed news article I can find:
http://www.develop-online.net/news/35644/Breaking-Realtime-Worlds-enters-administration

I've been aboard more than one software company that crashed, although none quite so spectacularly as RTW. I also have a friend up in Seattle who's been in the game business since the early 80s, who has been aboard similar crashes.

The real problem is the game's population and income potential. I added up people on both Zombie and LaRocha a few weeks ago, and it was less than 3,000 total at any given time of day. The game is still in its early days, and we know quite a few people who are here a LOT. That means peak usage (that 3,000 a day) is probably 20-40% of total active users, as opposed to the usual "maintenance" MMO level of 10-25% for what is essentially a subscription game. But even if you're generous and use 10%, that means total English-speaking audience is 30,000. I didn't count non-English, but it can't be much greater, so that means less than 75,000 paying customers. Personally, I'm guessing its under 50,000 and dropping steadily. That's $500k/month now, and probably dropping to half that in six months, and half again in a year, for average yearly subscription earnings a bit of $3 million. New game sales is unlikely to be much after all the bad news - another half million to million at best. By game industry standards, that's not a lot of money to work with.

As for buyers, SOE or anyone else is likely to invest only if the following equation is true, where Y equals months needed for a team to rectify the most serious problems:

((cost/month for fix-it crew) * (Y months to fix)) + (operating cost/mon * Y months) >=
(expected income during Y months)

Obviously, what you define as the game's serious problems are the major variable here. The more you believe necessary to fix, the harder it will be to make the above equation true. If the game can't finance its own fixes, its hard to imagine a publisher so desperate for a title that they'll pay money for the privilege spending yet more money. "Bottom feeders" who look at purchasing "distressed property" insist on demonstrable profits. Maybe during the heyday of the dot-com bubble a decade ago. Today we're in the midst of the greatest global economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It wouldn't surprise me if RTW had been desperately trying to shop around the game and their studio for the last month or two, until the present path became their only option.

It's going to be REALLY interesting to see who, if anyone, wants to buy APB.

Man, it is a depressing read to explore the APB forums. There is a lot of ambition in the company, but at the same time there are a lot of downside. Toxico was laid off today, cutting down the number of forum admins to one and his supervisor. I can only hope that the game does continue forward. I love this game and would really be sad if it was taken away from me.

Toxico got laid off. I smell a mutiny.

They had to appoint APBMonkey as the admin for both the EU and NA forums because within seconds of the discovery of Toxico's lay off the idiots out there were posting porn on the forums.

It would appear that the debt the company faces is not as insurmountable as many claimed. Articles point somewhere in the region of three million pounds. They certainly won't get there just by kicking people off the boat and jettisoning the life preservers, but this number, in my mind, seems like less of a barrier to another company's (that is: someone big) purchase of RTW's assets (that is: us).

Well, the number is certainly lower than expected. I can almost gurantee a change in the subscription plan once APB is bought out. I know the area the press was most critical of was charging by the hour.

Hmmmm. But speaking as someone with intermittent play time, I actually kinda liked that...

I never understood all the flak they took for the mothly/hourly costs. Every board I've seen talking about games called it confusing. It is the most flexable system I've seen.

Judging by the post counts Toxico was the logical choice to lay off. He ACTUALLY COMMUNICATED with the COMMUNITY as the COMMUNITY OFFICER!!! How dare he!