RealTime Worlds closes MyWorld team, puts APB staff on notice

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Rumours are swirling that APB-developer RealTime Worlds is making swingeing cuts.

The team behind ambitious virtual world project MyWorld (only publicly announced last month) have been made redundant, with as many as 60 layoffs.

Additionally, VG247 says that an email was sent to staff yesterday saying that “there could be drastic cuts to newly-launched crime MMO APB”.

I wrote a year ago a post entitled: “Dave Jones APB: massive success or an epic fail”. In it, I said “APB from RealTime Worlds is about to become either the games industry’s Titanic or its Heaven’s Gate.”

It looks like it may be Heaven’s Gate, especially as VG247 estimates that the company has spent $100 million on the game.

In a timely post, Diane Lagrange of ICO Partners called the end of the subscription MMO, predicting that most, if not all, MMOs will transition to, or launch as, free-to-play MMOs.

The failure of such a high-profile cheerleader for traditional, hardcore MMOs seems likely to hasten this transition.

Added to the Job Loss Tracker.

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