APB Can't be Reloaded

http://www.gamesbrief.com/2010/08/hubris-ambition-and-mismanagement-the-first-post-mortem-of-realtime-worlds/ - Link to the Article

Summing it all up:

The writer of this article, Nicholas Lovell, is explaining why the online video game APB failed. Starting in 2005, APB was a hugely ambitious game aspiring to be Counter-Strike in a World of Warcraft like Massively-multiplayer-online game setting; however, when the game released in 2010, APB sold roughly 4-5 thousand units and landed a Metacritic score of 58 out of 100. Besides looking at the games mechanics, many problems plagued the game. First and foremost, the game had no business model, or at least one that was not worked on. Second, the game took way too long to make, thus forcing the company to spend over $25 million on staff cost alone. Next, APB, like many other MMOs, had a try-fail-iterate model, which is releasing a game, having the community state the problems, and changing accordingly. The main problem is not the model, but that the game was released 5 years after development instead of earlier in development, allowing for less wasted money on changes. Lastly, the game had almost every feature the developers wanted, instead of making small changes over a long period of time. While sounding great at the time development started, this overly ambitious game tried to change too much while providing little the consumer would enjoy.

What do I think?

I remember following APB’s release and looking into the game. The game had the most extensive customization system out of any game made to date. The general gameplay was solid and enjoyable (to watch). Really, I could not see what the problem was with the game, then I saw the “business model.” I would prefer not to go into detail, but they payment was far too expensive for a MMO at the time. Not long after releasing the game, it was removed from the market. I fully understand why after reading this article. Even after the game was re-released as a free-to-play, I still agree with the majority of complaints. The world was too big to be enjoyable, the general mechanics of the game felt clunky, and the new business model was horrid. The only enjoyment I got from the game was the broken mechanics, making stupidly annoying moments for my friends to scream at. So, having played the game for myself, this article soundly states the problems plaguing this extremely ambitious game.