The games testing has "advanced to a very exciting stage internally" and the developers are preparing the initial steps for beta. What's that mean? Why Realtime is opening a Facebook page of course, what else? The Register Your Interest sign up page will let you sign up for email updates, not the beta, but in theory that will be coming down the line sometime too.

So if the game is moving along so swimmingly, why no appearance at E3 this year?

Tony Harman, president of Realtime Worlds, has the spin. Hint, it involves $50 million.

“This year we would have had an exciting presence with APB at E3 if we had continued with Webzen as our publisher. But, given that we re-acquired the rights to APB just this spring and closed a very large fundraising round ($50,000,000) to secure APB’s future, the timing just wasn’t right to attend E3. RTW is very excited with APB’s progress and we have used our fundraising as a means to invest even more heavily in the APB development team. RTW hopes to release more information later this year with regards to game play details and beta plans.”

All Points Bulletin Facebook

Calling the choice to not immediately begin work on a sequel "a horrible, horrible decision that we still dwell on," Macdonald tells VG247 that "I don’t think the door’s closed" on a sequel. Sounds like RTW is still willing, and able, to take another crack at Crackdown, should Microsoft call upon them. And they may, one day.

Crackdown 2: “The door’s not closed,” says Realtime Worlds [VG247]

Realtime Worlds president Tony Harman (who recently told us why we didn't see APB at E3) had a chat with Gamespot:

Realtime Worlds president Tony Harmon told GameSpot today that he's expecting his modern-day cops-and-robbers game APB to land an M from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Though the game has no release date yet, the developer is planning to submit it to the ratings process next year.

The concept art in this post is cool, huh? Move over, six-fingered Lollipop Girl?

APB gunning for an M [Gamespot]

We haven't heard a word from Real Time Worlds since they blew our collective minds during a talk at this year's Game Developers Conference. Recently hired Community Relations Manager Chris Dye just dropped us a line to let us know that's about to change.

Dye is tasked with the walk in the park job of building interest in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto-esque massively multiplayer online game.

“APB is at an extremely exciting and important stage, and we can now begin the process of introducing to the gaming community the various aspects of what will make up this genre defining MMO”, commented Chris.

Mario Rizzo, Business Development Manager added “This appointment signals the start of a new phase for APB where we can interact more fluidly with both gaming sites, and our potential future player base. This is an important milestone for the game now that we are transitioning into Alpha and moving towards the full public beta of APB.”

I know that a beta for an MMO is almost a necessity, but that doesn't make me any less excited.

Realtime downplays GTA Online talk [Eurogamer]

Realtime Worlds now holds distribution rights to APB—which, by the way, looked nothing short of fabulous at GDC—which founder David Jones says "can ensure that gamers around the globe experience the revolutionary gameplay we envisioned." Jones also spoke of a "having direct, personal relationships with our players" due to the change. We can only presume that the Scottish method of microtransacting does not necessarily jibe with the Korean style, but we hope that whatever the reason, the game will be better for it. Press release follows.

Realtime Worlds Regains Global Distribution Rights to Ground-Breaking Online Game APB Following Second Round Funding

BOULDER, Colo. & DUNDEE, Scotland—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Realtime Worlds, Inc., a leading independent video game developer, today announced that it has regained the global distribution rights to All Points Bulletin (APB), the highly-anticipated urban-themed massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) under development in the company's Dundee studio. The move follows Realtime Worlds' recent US$50 million second round funding and provides the company with the independence to push creative boundaries in the development of the game and to take a more active role in managing APB's global distribution strategy.

"Owning the distribution rights to APB marks a major milestone in Realtime Worlds' evolution into a premier online entertainment company," said David Jones, founder and CEO, Realtime Worlds. "By controlling the rights to APB we can ensure that gamers around the globe experience the revolutionary gameplay we envisioned when we first began creating the property. We are excited about the prospect of having direct, personal relationships with our players, which is a dream come true for many development studios."

APB is an original MMOG for the PC platform featuring an immersive urban-based community where players choose between playing the criminals or those out to catch the criminals. Players will carry out or thwart opposed crimes and build up areas of the city they control, all with unprecedented levels of character and vehicle customization.

Realtime Worlds regained the global distribution rights to APB from leading Korean online entertainment company Webzen, Inc., which originally partnered with Realtime Worlds in 2005.

About Realtime Worlds

Founded in 2002 by CEO and Creative Director David Jones alongside gaming industry veterans Ian Hetherington and Tony Harman, Realtime Worlds is one of the largest and most successful independent game developers in the world. With an exceptionally talented staff of more than 200, the company's experienced teams have a tremendous history of creating some of the world's bestselling video games, including the global hit franchises "Lemmings" and "Grand Theft Auto."

In an exclusive partnership with Microsoft Game Studios, Realtime Worlds launched its first title, Crackdown, on Xbox 360 in early 2007. The debut game broke records for demo downloads, sold approximately 1.4 million copies, and won multiple awards including prestigious BAFTA and Develop Industry Excellence awards.

With corporate headquarters in Boulder, Colo. and a development studio in Dundee, Scotland, Realtime Worlds is currently working on All Points Bulletin, a massively multiplayer online game in the urban action genre.

For more information on Realtime Worlds, visit www.realtimeworlds.com

Yes, we'll be looking seriously at [APB on PS3], but that doesn't mean it's going ahead, and it doesn't mean it's not going ahead.

While the above pic may not be of the best quality, we got a few individuals snaps that are much better looking. They're behind the jump, front page visitors, because I'm pretty sure that pic of a pants-less Miyamoto is not safe for work.

Seriously, man. Put some khakis on!

APB does have persistence and progression, if done a bit non-traditionally. But customization is one feature that APB has in spades.

Jones kicked off the early look at APB with a preview of character customization. One of the design goals for APB was to "let the player make their own action figure", putting character generation in the hands of the user and giving them the ability to make their avatars look totally unique. While deep character customization has become a staple of the MMO, APB's version may feature the broadest set of tools yet.

Jones walked us through a sped up version of the creation process, outfitting his avatar with unique identifiers—facials scars, veins, freckles, tattoos, realistic looking hair, a massive wardrobe. Using a system that might look familiar to serious Forza Motorsport 2 players, APB looks to one-up what Turn 10 Studios has done, with a decal system that has some stunning customization chops. Not only can users manipulate primitive vector shapes, they can apply shaders, textures and pre-made hi-res images to their designs, making for extremely realistic decals. These decals can be applied to anything the player wears, even to his skin, with a realistic tattoo look applied to the player generated content.

Clothing is also fully customizable, with attention paid to fit, layering and even things like tucking or untucking one's shirt.

That unique identity extends not just to your own character, but to your clan and your car as well. Car customization works just like avatar customization, so the decals a player has emblazoned on his jacket can also be applied to your ride.

Jones showed footage from the game, featuring characters fresh to the world—one thug was on an early mission, stealing a TV set in the default noob outfit of white t-shirt and jeans—and characters who were longtime APB vets. The MMO features "dynamic matchmaking" as Jones called it, essentially setting up player versus player missions on the fly. A three-player group of Gangsters were tasked with scoring some loot, then driving it to a safe point to complete their mission, a standard Grand Theft Auto-style mission set up. The moment the Gangsters crossed the line and broke the law, an APB was sent out to the game's Enforcers, the cops to their robbers.

What followed was essentially the MMO version of a Counter-Strike round, with players either driving their respective vehicles or engaging in a third-person firefight. The pair of Enforcers, two player pairs, responding to the all points bulletin eventually tracked down the bad guys, blocking them into an alleyway.

Jones said that these dynamic matchmaking battles in APB wouldn't necessarily pit players of the same level against each other. He showed a clip of a group of new players, with just a single pistol between the four of them, being matched with a very high level Enforcer. He quickly took them down, but not before destroying their low level car with a rocket launcher. Who doesn't like rocket launchers?

What we saw of APB was really exciting stuff. The team looks like they may have something special that appeals to gamers who would traditionally scoff and MMOs, but something that isn't just Crackdown Online or EverQuest In The Bad Part Of Town.

The final feature that Jones showed, was APB's ability to generate great machinima. With a group of wildly customized characters that looked like Cloud and Barret from Final Fantasy VII taking on a Cactuar and something impish, but not immediately recognizable to this FF noob. A turn based battle ensued, which quickly ended when "Cloud" summoned a decked out flaming car, done, of course, to hilarious effect.

We have dozens of screens of the game in motion at GDC, including the mock Final Fantasy VII cinema, in the gallery below. Be sure to check them out.

That bigger and better thing is most likely Real Time Worlds' cops and robbers MMO APB which is definitely not a remake of Atari arcade game of the same name (sadly). The Scottish developer also has something else up its sleeve, due to hit unspecified platforms in 2009.

Despite a rocky development cycle that went overbudget and a "poor image pre-release", it seems that Crackdown was definitely a success. So why no sequel, Microsoft?

Realtime Worlds chats about Crackdown creation challenges [Develop Mag]