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K2 Network calls in APB - Report

Free-to-play online game operator said to have acquired Realtime Worlds' defunct online shooter for $2.4 million.

APB took a slug to the chest following the collapse of its developer, Realtime Worlds, but it appears as if the cops-and-robbers-themed online multiplayer shooter will be given a second life. GamesIndustry.biz reports today that K2 Network has acquired the APB intellectual property at a cost of £1.5 million ($2.4 million).

K2 Network appears to now own this town.

K2 Network appears to now own this town.

GI.biz's sources indicate that K2 Network intends to relaunch the game before the end of the year. The not-quite-massively multiplayer online shooter was taken offline by Realtime Worlds administration firm Begbies Traynor in September, following an anemic adoption of the tepidly received title. At its peak, APB drew in 130,000 players, with paying users spending on average $28 on the microtransaction-supported title.

K2 Network is perhaps best known for its free-to-play online game service GamersFirst. The service hosts a number of microtransaction-supported MMO role-playing games, including Knight Online, War Rock, and 9 Dragons. Much like Xbox Live, GamersFirst uses its own form of currency across all titles on the platform, with the base 400 credits pack costing $5.

The sale of APB ties up the last of Realtime Worlds' loose ends. The studio, which was founded in part by Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones, sold off its other major property, Project MyWorld, in September. Project MyWorld was reportedly acquired by Kimble Operations, which is headed by former Realtime Worlds chairman Ian Hetherington, whose other industry credits include cofounding Wipeout studio Psygnosis (now known as Sony's Studio Liverpool).

K2 Network declined to comment on the report.

51 Comments

  • MasonChaos

    Posted Nov 15, 2010 1:08 pm GMT

    I bet they bought APB off eBay.

  • MasonChaos

    Posted Nov 15, 2010 1:07 pm GMT

    @Kahlualei Just so you know APB isn't a FPS.

  • MasonChaos

    Posted Nov 15, 2010 1:07 pm GMT

    I will play this game when its Free 2 Play. I played it for like 6 hours when it was first released and realized how unbalanced and unfun it was. The need to make a "perk" system like CoD. That was you can choose either More Damage OR More Health. Not both. This game pretty much needs an entire redo of the balancing, party and driving system and then I'll definitely play again.

  • blackjoker86

    Posted Nov 15, 2010 5:06 am GMT

    i heard from a friend that crime craft went through the same stuff then turned there game to F2P

  • Gezquester

    Posted Nov 15, 2010 1:01 am GMT

    Meh

  • emperiox

    Posted Nov 14, 2010 3:39 pm GMT

    Woot! Can't wait! I really wanted to try it when it was p2p

  • 01-cannon-mpc

    Posted Nov 14, 2010 3:27 pm GMT

    Interesting now lets se how this pans out.

  • Kahlualei

    Posted Nov 14, 2010 2:35 pm GMT

    Apb was an awesome game but had a few major flaws which killed it.

    #1) The character and weapon upgrade system sucked because playing an fps game where your opponents do more damage, have more hps, and regen faster than you do is not fun. If upgrades gave players more variety in allowing them to change how they did things as opposed to just making them stronger, the game would have been much better because skill and strategy would decide fights instead of gear and grind.

    #2) Hacks were rampant. It only takes one hacker in the opposing side to frustrate an entire team and ruin the mission experience. RTW was terrible at policing hackers. This ruined the game because eventually there were so many hackers that competitive players became frustrated and quit.

    #3) Matchmaking was terrible. Playing without a pre-made team usually lead to large amounts of frustration. If player upgrades were more universally even, it might have been easier to match players against each other.

    #4) Risk/reward for missions was very skewed. Players who cared about winning were often teamed up with players who were just looking for a little fun, or who were trying to grind cash or contact levels. Separating players playing for rank and those playing for exp/cash/fun would have gone a long way towards making the game better.

  • gmh2000

    Posted Nov 14, 2010 10:16 am GMT

    This game was great. But, the lack of anti-hack software made it horrible. Aimbots abound in this game. That is what ruined this. For as much as they spent creating this game, if they spent even just a small bit of that to develop an anti-hack system, or at least put GM's in the game to ban hackers, it would have made this game worth keeping on my play list. But, the Developers did nothing to stop hackers and aimbotters, and therefore, the game died a swift death. I HATE hackers. I hope this new company will re-release it with some kind of enforcement against hackers. I think 2 strikes and you are out is sufficient. Ban their account, ban the credit card used for their account. Don't let them back in.

  • GeneralShowzer

    Posted Nov 13, 2010 3:22 pm GMT

    The game costed 60 million to make and now they buy it for 2 million.

    Pretty good deal. It might flourish as a F2P game.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 10:07 pm GMT

    A new life as a F2P, people would most likely play it

  • digi-demon

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 5:40 pm GMT

    Good news
    How about an Xbox conversion - on live it would be awesome

  • mccartercar1

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 12:37 pm GMT

    I played APB from beta till close and closely followed its development. Hackers were the straw that broke the camels back, but there is no other game that Ive had that much fun in since.
    APB had the ingredients to be very successful.
    There were times like during a 10v10 fight in the middle of a mission using vent to coordinate attacks and having different load outs for team members and their cars was epic.
    Since APB shutdown I have thought of at least 1000 different kill themes, car designs, or caricatures in which I would have loved to create.
    For as bad as the game was, it was barely in its infancy and the devs tried hard to push content out the door and it was only getting better.
    GOD SPEED K2

  • MooncalfReviews

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 10:18 am GMT

    This is good news for everyone who saw the potential in this, especially if it was released as the first real console action MMO.

  • Keb101

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 8:26 am GMT

    Loved this game and hope to get back on quickly !

  • P0T

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 7:31 am GMT

    APB did go down because it was bad. It was boring after a few hours and the game systems sucked. It was basically death match over and over. And the first guy to camp at the entrance to the spots won. It was so easy to defend a spot once you found the right spot to camp at.

  • GabrielOnuris

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 7:30 am GMT

    Finally!! APB, here I go...

  • fetusfart18

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 7:01 am GMT

    I wouldn't even want to play APB again as a F2P.

  • pedroalexxx

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 6:54 am GMT

    @BornGamer

    ahahahah I wouldn't say better myself xD

  • MythPro1

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 6:39 am GMT

    It's their money, let them spend it however they choose. Choosing for a game to burn and die is absolutely silly. It's not like the company is getting their money from your taxes or pockets. They're not wasting your "precious" time either, so what's the big deal?

    Let's see what they can do with it. If it still sucks, oh well it's on them.

  • BornGamer

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 6:22 am GMT

    When this also fails as a F2P game, maybe they'll try paying people to play it.

  • X-RS

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 4:30 am GMT

    wow. sounds cheap to me....

  • videogameking25

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 3:29 am GMT

    @blakeney Thanks, I never would have thought of that

  • OGKNav

    Posted Nov 12, 2010 1:56 am GMT

    A lot of people don't understand why APB went down.

    APB didn't go down because it didn't sell well/was "bad"/"P2P"/etc.
    RTW didn't go down because of APB.
    RTW went down because of extremely terrible management. They may have well had same random kid running it. This is what happens when you think you're a big bad corporate head who thinks he's the man with the plan, but doesn't have the money to back it up.

  • MasterTheHero

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 11:35 pm GMT

    So I guess Epic Games decided not to purchase it after all huh? Free 2 play could be interesting, but if all the items in that game are going to turn into purchaseable items. Whoo, that's a lot of money I won't be spending for sure.

  • FriendBear

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 11:14 pm GMT

    If this does indeed go F2P, I'll check it out ~ spending small amounts of money on micro transactions isn't really bad a thing providing you don't go nuts and overspend.

  • PewPewNinja

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 10:46 pm GMT

    @stakex007 Im pretty sure that the main factor why ppl left was the bad Gameplay and after that the lack of content, Customization was great but there wasn't enough cloth (i don't count the same thing with diff colors). The music creation tool was cool, logo creation was cool, selling those was great, and the art style in the video/picture was great (personal opinion here), the rest was lacking or simply bad. Hack? yeah, maybe, kinda hard to tell in a game were you can't do headshot and that ppl are 3.5/4 of the time at point blank. I don't think APB will rise again its just not good enough.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 10:32 pm GMT

    @ionusX

    You wrote:
    old news gamespot.. man you folks is slow...

    GameSpot is slow, that much I accept, but I wouldn't be criticizing them like you did because I know that they aren't exactly swarming with dozens of staffers - especially for their News team.

    Besides, Tom here is citing second-hand news, i.e. he would have only known about it if he had chanced upon the citation of GamesIndustry.biz's exclusive report in some other sites or GamesIndustry.biz itself. It's not like he's spending as much time surfing the web for gaming news as you had, is it?

  • stakex007

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 9:30 pm GMT

    @antipodez - I disagree. APB did not die because the game itself was flawed... it failed because far too many people assumed it was going to be F2P and simply refused to buy the game because they felt they were lied to. Which of course they weren't lied to... RTW said that a subscription was not needed to play... not that it would be free, and a subscription was in fact not requiered (I had friends who played the whole time the game was out without paying a dime). But still... a ton of people simply would not buy the game because of that.

    Thats where the death of APB started... but the game was KO'ed due to a combination of hacking, and a lack of content in a Pay to Play game. In the end, from talking with people who played the game I think the rampant hacking was probably the largest issue.

    So, if APB is re-released as a Free to Play game... it will probably re-attract a lot of the people who simply ignored it because it was not free. Not to mention people simply can't pass up anything thats free these days. Of course the rampant hacking will certainly need attention, and it would be nice to know theres going to be constant additions to the game... even if they come at a slow place. If those issues can be tackled, I think APB will rise again.

  • y0ur_grandma

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 9:25 pm GMT

    Wait, it's going to be free-to-play? Free stuff is always good....

  • ionusX posted Nov 11, 2010 8:32 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ionusX

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 8:32 pm GMT (hide)

    old news gamespot.. man you folks is slow.. i swear if your news team was any SLOWER id personnaly come down there to help you folks out.. i get to this stuff LONG before you. and if i ever bothered to post it in my blog (which would take wayy too much time, id be updating it like 7 times a day) id probably get more attention than you folks.. seriously gamespot.. you is slow.
    a turtle could beat you to a news story

  • Jedilink109

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 8:11 pm GMT

    Sweetness. I knew this game wouldn't be held down for too long. Although there are plenty of good and interesting looking MMO's out or coming out, it's a highly saturated market right now. And considering the subscription fees almost all of them are asking it's often hard to get players to invest unless they've played plenty of MMO's before. Without a subscription fee I feel it'd appeal to larger audiences. Exactly why I like Guild Wars.

  • Anti-Skub

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 7:56 pm GMT

    APB might actually work as a F2P microtransaction game, as long as K2 actually invest a little bit of money on development to try and level out the games many bumps. I doubt it's going to be a massive hit, but it should be able to support a reasonable player base if they don't just sink it. You'd think if they are paying for it they would realise that they can't just stick it up for download as is and expect to turn a profit, so here's hoping they have some kind of plan.

  • d3nyd

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 7:53 pm GMT

    I think this is fantastic. APB, at the end, was a great, great game. The Pure Skill servers, the thing that would have made it amazing, were unfortunately slated to release the day AFTER the servers shut down. Maybe now I can finally play the great cops and robbers game I paid for a few months ago.

  • TXGAMER7 posted Nov 11, 2010 7:50 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    TXGAMER7

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 7:50 pm GMT (hide)

    bad idea

  • antipodez

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 7:46 pm GMT

    Seems like a bad buy to me. APB couldn't garner enough interest the first time around, and an extra year will only hurt. APB's IP is completely generic also.

  • blakeney

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 7:41 pm GMT

    @videogameking25

    F2P is FreeToPlay

  • videogameking25

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 7:27 pm GMT

    Hey, what's an F2P.

  • Unit_1004

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 6:56 pm GMT

    Great news! I had fun with APB and the main issues were almost completely fixed by the most recent patches. Nice to see it might come back.

  • blakeney

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 6:51 pm GMT

    I think APBs main downfalls were these 3 things:
    The inclusion of microtransactions (im all for paying a fee to play a DECENT mmo with proper "GM's".

    The lack of a "real world". (Despite the dev teams name!!!)

    The devs during beta listened to only the holy few (elitists) that were hellbent on APB having NO rpg eliments whatsoever aswell as being all for F2P.

    I think that if APB was more like gta then a 3rd person TDM with cars, then it will flurish in the kinda scope and range to the mass appeal that the cod series has!!!

  • blakeney

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 6:44 pm GMT

    I wouldnt hold your breath on this comming back just yet peoples..... they brought the "intellectual property rights", if apb does come back it will be pretty much stripped and remade (i played the last one from closed beta, and it was such a fail compared to what it could have been!), which imo is a good thing, other then the fact that will take "more" time!! (Some of us apb fans actually followed it through its like 8 year+ production cycle!!!)

  • Fryboy101

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 5:28 pm GMT

    i was really interested in APB when it was first announced, then the P2P came in and i was disappointed. and now that it could be F2P, that might be reason enough for me to check it out again.

  • Crashbox45

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 5:22 pm GMT

    If true, then I hope K2 can make APB a better game than what Realtime Worlds did. Also it will be free because K2 specializes in F2P games. That definitely is great news!

  • Sgthombre

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 5:18 pm GMT

    I'd play this game for free in a heartbeat. Play for $60 bucks, however.....

  • bornej

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 5:11 pm GMT

    I liked APB and glad to hear it's coming back. I used to play 9 dragons and made a few purchases in that game. It was a positive experience with K2. Hopefully they can make the changes to APB combat that are needed to make it a successful and fair PVP game before they relauch it. It would also be nice to see it run better on 32 bit OS's with 4GB of memory.

  • KillerJuan77

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 5:02 pm GMT

    Make it F2P and I might try it out.

  • SolidTy

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 4:46 pm GMT


    Fans of APB must be pleased...good for them, I say.

  • DrKill09

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 4:39 pm GMT

    Meh. APB had it's chance, it failed. I moved on.

  • wis3boi

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 4:35 pm GMT

    If it stays F2P, then it might work out. I have never held interest in this title, i saw the failure coming a mile away, but if it goes free, ill give it a shot perhaps. A game like this didn't need the pay system it had. Also, do something about the cheaters, I heard nothing but horrible things about aimbots and such

  • stakex007

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 3:37 pm GMT

    This is actually great news. I know a lot of people hated APB (many hated it even without playing it), but the game really was a ton of fun. It did in fact lack the content one would expect from a pay to play game... but with a F2P model and some fixes it could be a really successful game.

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