According to beta invites going out to accepted users, beta playtesting times appear to be limited, but you get what you pay for. If you got in, let us know. And maybe send us some new, lovely looking screen shots of the APB beta in action. We're getting tired of the officially released ones.

The EA published PC game is slated for a March 2010 release, giving beta testers ample opportunity to dirty and/or clean the streets of San Paro. Have fun!

Realtime Worlds CEO Gary Dale was on hand at the Tech Media Invest conference in London, where he confirmed that the game some describe as a persistent world Grand Theft Auto would slowly begin letting in beta testers next week. One would expect those accepted into the test to find out extremely soon. Dale also made a point of mentioning that the number of beta participants would steadily increase leading up to next year's launch, so don't give up on it, baby.

I honestly have no idea where that last bit came from.

APB beta to go live next week [GamesIndustry.Biz]

McWhertor mentioned the similarities between the two titles in his impressions of APB from Gamescom in Germany last month, and this gameplay clip completely backs him up. Of course this isn't a bad thing. I've had countless hours of fun just tooling around in Free Ride mode in Grand Theft Auto IV, so I could definitely see the finer points of a game that takes that and gives it a direction.

In short, I'd totally hit it, but I'd be thinking of something else.

Realtime Worlds' cops versus criminals online game is focused far more on the flesh and blood player than a computer controlled one, as illustrated by the deep level of customization seen in APB's avatars and highly personalized cars, the first "C" that we wrote about at E3. That customization extends further to what Realtime Worlds calls "death tunes." These are user-created jingles that play when an Enforcer kills a Criminal, or vice versa, written with an in-game music creation tool. It's a griefing tool, rubbing the death of your enemies in their faces with a tune of your choice.

Those were the sights and sounds we experienced during our demo, a pair of missions that involved picking up packages—simply referred to as "evidence"—and delivering them to various locations. The Enforcer team we watched were given that mission by a man named Malcom, who set them up with a nine chapter long series of tasks, a mission we never actually saw the developers complete.

That's because the Criminals interfered. A real life team of players aligned with the Criminal faction were alerted to the Enforcers' activities as soon as the police force picked up the evidence.

What really happened there was that a squad of four Criminal players were matchmade by APB when the cops started their mission, as by design. The same would be true for a group of Criminals, should they solicit a mission. That's where the player-based conflict comes into play, as you won't face anything but human opponents in APB, according to Realtime Worlds.

As the Enforcers and the Criminals clashed throughout the Financial District of city San Pero, APB looked like a mix of a traditional MMO and Grand Theft Auto IV, with stats like player names and "threat rating"—essentially a player's level of skill—displayed above their heads.

Much of the conflict we saw was via gunplay, with players dying and respawning, joining the fray about 100 in-game meters away. The Enforcers have one advantage in APB conflicts, with the ability to "arrest" opponents, extending their opponent's respawn time.

Yes, handcuffs last longer than death in APB.

The conflict portion of APB looked interesting, if a bit familiar, a blend of third-person gunplay that moves at the speed of an MMO. We'd imagine it's the possibilities of improvisation and chaos that will ultimately make the game so appealing, at least on top of the character leveling and deep customization.

APB is slated to be published on the PC by Electronic Arts in the first quarter of 2010, with the developer looking at "console strategies" once it has "everything ironed out."

The application actually seems like it's part beta tester app, part demographic survey. Along with the normal questions like processor type and testing experience, Realtime is asking for your marital status, number of children per household, and income level, which to me doesn't seem to have a great deal of impact on whether or not you can beta test. Most of it isn't optional, either. You have to select an income range - there is no "No comment" option. The company does at least assure applicants that their information is safe.

The form below is fairly detailed: we'd greatly appreciate you giving us the information requested so that we can understand the kind of player who is interested in APB and collect details on your hardware and beta testing experience. Your information is safe with us: we won't sell or distribute it in any way.

Perhaps I am overreacting, but this isn't the type of information I feel I have to share in order to participate in a beta test. I'll gladly fill out a politely requested survey once my beta application is filled out, but I'd rather it be a bit more voluntary.

My qualms aside, Realtime is actively seeking players, and the application page is encouraging.

Selected testers will receive an invitation by email along with details of how to download the game and take part. If you don't hear back from us in the next few months, don't despair, we'll be selecting more people right through to launch and we will need bigger numbers of testers as time goes on. Even if you're not selected for the start of the program you may get an invitation later.

If you feel like sharing, head over to the APB beta application page and check some boxes.

APB Beta Signups [Blue's News]

APB has cost Realtime Worlds around $30 million between development data centers, and hardware, so we'd certainly forgive them if they wanted us to pay a monthly subscription rate to be a punk girl with a white mohawk. However, speaking to VG247 during the Develop conference this week, boss David Jones indicated that was not the direction the company is going in.

"Basically, you have to buy the client. It's a traditional game that you buy...We're not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month' route. What we haven't said is which route we are going, and in some respects we're still looking."

Still looking, but Jones assures that APB's subscription model will be unique and interesting, allowing players to fully understand why they should spend money to cover the company's investment.

And now it's time for my suggestion! Allot sever bandwidth based on the amount of money players on said server pay. The more money they deliver, the less lag they experience. They could even introduce a free server featuring turn-based shooting.

What? It's a brilliant idea.

Jones: APB has cost $30 million, won't have "normal" subs model [VG247]

"With Crackdown we sold about 1.5 million copies, but even at that we pretty much only managed to break even," says Dave Jones, boss of developers Realtime Worlds. "It was due to the amount of factors that were out of our control as the developer, influences such as GameStop's amazing used-game sales; we know 1.5 million new copies were sold, but it's likely there were 2.5, three million sold when you include used."

And you wonder why developers and publishers hate GameStop?

Crackdown Only Broke Even, says Dave Jones [IndustryGamers]

During his keynote presentation at this year's GameHorizon conference, Realtime Worlds creative director David Jones told the crowd that the company's next massively multiplayer online title, the first details of which will be released next year, is indeed the game the company originally planned to create. In fact, he explained, the unannounced title is the game that they initially raised $30 million in venture capital funding to help finance.

Other than the fact that the game was "a very ambitious project" and the company is "very excited", Jones couldn't comment any further.

We sincerely hope that APD doesn't develop some sort of complex for being the child Realtime Worlds is having until they can make the baby they really want.

Realtime to announce second MMO next year [GamesIndustry.biz]

Realtime Worlds isn't going to let their disappointment with Microsoft keep them down. The Dunde-based developer has picked up some new office space, and is looking to increase its talent pool by a good 40 employees by the beginning of 2010, when APD is up and running. While their current staff numbers more than 250, Realtime CEO Gary Dale explains that their games are just plain bigger than that.

"The calibre and potential of games we are creating requires staff of the highest calibre and we're proud to have found 250 immensely talented and creative individuals so far, and look forward to finding more like-minded people to join the family. We're coming off the back of a very successful E3, with APB winning countless plaudits, which increases the level of excitement over the coming months as we ramp up to launch."

Nothing generates job openings quite like pluadits, and there are more than 40 new openings listed right now at the Realtime Worlds website. Be sure to tell them Kotaku sent you. That won't necessarily help, but it will definitely give us the warm fuzzies, and isn't that what really matters?

CEO David Jones has told GI.biz that he's both surprised and "miffed" at...something.

The bottom line is that what we thought would happen is that a sequel would be done by a studio somewhere... maybe one of the internal studios, or others that they've worked with, and that would be the way it went forward.

I think it was unfortunate that it had to be with a start-up in Dundee... it is challenging to get enough developers in one region as it is, so that was the only little big of negativity to the story.

It's just one of those awkward moments. In terms of the franchise, as always - as with anything we've created - we're always keen to see it do great things. This is like a bump in the road... was there really no way it could have been done by one of the studios Microsoft shut down...?

I was a bit miffed at Microsoft that it happened that way, but you live and learn.

Is he...jealous? Disappointed? Maybe neither. Maybe both!

David Jones "miffed" at Microsoft's Ruffian decision [GI.biz]

APB, which comes from the creators of Crackdown, has been in development for a few years and has bounced publishers to land at EA for its expected early 2010 PC release. But for all the times it's popped up in the press, the many unusual ways it works still came as a surprise during Kotaku's meeting with the game's creators at E3.

The game is set in virtual urban spaces that support 100 players competitively in each, or 300 people in non-gameplay social spaces. Each world or shard of the MMO will support 10,000 players who are divided into those spaces. Within those shards you can be a man or a woman, a criminal or a cop ("enforcer"), doing good or bad in whichever region you choose.

If you want, you'll be able to play the game as if it was a single-player game, minding your business by stealing cars, cleaning graffiti, and taking other missions that a criminal or cop might do. But that won't last. (See the APB trailer here.)

If you're a criminal and someone witnesses a criminal player's wrongdoing — or if a car alarm goes off in a stolen car, perhaps — an APB (All Points Bulletin) alert is activated. In this game's case, that means that a dynamic matchmake occurs. The game searches the in-game region and finds one or more enforcers who are equal in skill to the criminal or criminals perpetrating their crime. It gives them orders to stop that crime. And because what is being balanced is overall skill, it doesn't mean the number of players will be even on both sides. Three lowly cops might be sent after one skilled criminal. Or, if the criminal is really good, E.J. Moreland, APB's lead designer told Kokau, all 50 enforcer players in the game's region might be sent after them.

Customization options in APB are so deep that the developers have shown spitting images of real people being generated through the editing tools every player will have for customizing their look and clothes. (Last year at Game Developers Conference, the character customization was shown off to impressive effect). Cars can be rigged to sport famous designs. Even the music played from a car can be tuned to pull from the MP3s on your computer. And, if a player drives by playing music you don't have on yours, then APB will tap into Last.fm and generate a similar-sounding song for you to hear instead. Oh, and you can set custom jingles to play when you kill other players' characters.

Moreland explained that APB is being built to be a sandbox of a game, befitting Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones' past work on the original Grand Theft Autos. It won't be big on developer-made story. "The story is what the players do," he said, "Not what we do."

There was a time when APB was expected to morph into Grand Theft Auto Online, maybe even officially. That's not happening. "I think we're a stronger game for it," Moreland said.

Instead, what gamers will be getting is an MMO that encourages player creativity, a lot of mayhem, and if that APB system works, a city full of cat-and-mouse, cops and robbers scrambling and scrapping across the virtual metropolis.

We weren't given the chance to play the game at E3. A live demonstration showed the character customization. Gameplay was shown in a controlled demo and in a trailer. The game is slated for a first-quarter release in 2010 for PC.

The Crackdown developers are giving thousands of players the opportunity to side with either the Criminals or the Enforcers, both of which look equally unlike the type of person you'd be happy to run into in a darkened alley. But they certainly look well decorated. If there's one thing that APB does, it's offer character customization. It might not be easy to distinguish cop from criminal in the game's E3 trailer, but it certainly looks interesting.

Me? I'm probably picking wholesome ponytailed girl with hockey mask and rocket launcher.

Yes, the team behind 360 exclusive Crackdown - and helmed by GTA creator David Jones - have signed a deal with EA, who will now be publishing the upcoming MMO title on the PC.

A new trailer (which we'll have up soon) was also shown for the game, and it looks...well, like Crackdown with a more GTA aesthetic. Funny, that.

While the timing just wasn't right last year, this year Realtime Worlds seems to be on point, announcing their E3 2009 presence via the APB fan site APB Evolved.

"Hi everyone at APB-Evolved, we just wanted to quickly say thanks for all your patience recently whilst we've been quietly pushing forward with the development of APB. We know this can be frustrating for fans, so to show our appreciation we have decided to inform you guys that yes we WILL be at E3 this year and this will mark the start of lots more news, activities and information coming out about APB: All Points Bulletin."

More news is definitely good news, especially when it comes with a shiny new in-game screenshot, like the one above. One step closer to realizing the skinny, tattooed, white-haired punk woman that's always been inside of me.

APB Evolved receives exclusive screenshot [APB Evolved]

But with Realtime Worlds well into development of APB, and the original Crackdown under their belt you can't help but wonder, are they hard at work on Crackdown 2?

The recent interest stems from a digital resume someone posted on LinkedIn and pointed out by Superannuation. The resume, said to be for Ross Nicoll, breaks down the current audio design lead at Ruffian Games' experience.

Here's the summary:

Started out At VIS Entertainment in 2003. Moved to Realtime Worlds in 2005. Member of the Crackdown audio team that won the 2007 "Best Use of Audio" BAFTA award. After Crackdown, I worked on APB, and another unannounced project. Left Realtime in Feb 2009 to take on the role of Audio Design Lead at Ruffian Games - www.ruffiangames.com

Credited on the following titles:

Crackdown - Xbox 360
Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer - PS2
The Powerpuff Girls: Relish Rampage - Nintendo Game Cube
Tom and Jerry: War of the Whiskers - Xbox

Another interesting point: Rumors have been floating about that Ruffian Games was formed to work on Crackdown 2.

Ross Nicoll [Via Superannuation]

Admirable, but rumors swirled that Reeves was repaying society by taking a "senior position" at Crackdown developers Realtime Worlds.

Realtime wha? says Reeves. "I'd never ever heard of Realtime Worlds until someone asked me about them a couple of days ago," Reeves told industry site Develop. "I can honestly say no, that rumour is not true." And we can honestly say as head of Sony Entertainment Europe, David Reeves should know major European third party devs.

Dale's departure from Take-Two interactive was announced in January of this year, with personal reasons cited as the cause of his departure. His last official day at Take-Two was April 15th, and after a nice little vacation he now slips into the role of CEO for Realtime Worlds.

"Realtime Worlds is one of the most innovative game companies in the world," said Gary Dale, CEO, Realtime Worlds, Inc. "The Company is on the verge of launching products that will change current conceptions of what MMO games are about. I can't imagine a more exciting opportunity than to join this talented and creative team as we prepare to deliver such ground-breaking and high quality online entertainment to gamers around the globe."

Dale will lead the company through transition from traditional developer to online game publisher, beginning with their online shooter All Points Bulletin.

According to sources, the site claims that, rather than retiring to spend his days on a beach sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas in them, David Reeves will instead be taking up a "senior position" at Realtime Worlds, the developers behind Crackdown and the upcoming APB.

Contacted for comment, SCEE would only say that they do not comment on "rumours & speculation".

Rumour: David Reeves moving to Realtime Worlds [VG247]

In a statement to Videogaming247, Realtime Worlds boss Colin MacDonald said he "very much doubts that Microsoft would harm an otherwise fruitful existing development relationship by gambling on funding Crackdown 2 with a startup on [Realtime Worlds’] doorstep, for obvious reasons."

Furthermore, MacDonald said that while some staff had left to join/form Ruffian, the “vast majority of the Crackdown team remain at RTW," where they are at work on the Grand Theft Auto-style MMO APB and an “unannounced project that will cause quite a stir when unveiled.”

His full statement to Videogaming247:

I just wanted to correct the rumours today surrounding Crackdown. Although to date we haven’t had an offer from Microsoft for the Crackdown sequel rumoured, we continue to have ongoing discussions with them. In the unfortunate event that there isn’t an agreement with RTW reached, Dave said he would “be gutted not to be involved, but if it had to be that way, I would want to see it done justice – by an established, renowned developer that had the track record of delivering the quality gaming experience Crackdown players would demand.”

In any event, I also very much doubt that Microsoft would harm an otherwise fruitful existing development relationship by gambling on funding Crackdown 2 with a startup on RTW’s doorstep, for obvious reasons.

Regarding the rumoured RTW departures, we believe that maybe five or six ex-Realtime Worlds staff have been employed by Ruffian in recent weeks. Whilst we’re always sad to lose any member of the RTW family, fans should rest assured that the vast majority of the Crackdown team remain at RTW, and our 200+ talented individuals are working hard towards APB being one of the biggest launches of 2009, as well as on an unannounced project that will cause quite a stir when unveiled.

So, there you have it. Not confirmation that this is Realtime Worlds' project and not Ruffian's — more like a sense that it's nobody's project yet. Stay tuned.

Exclusive: Realtime Worlds Confirms “Ongoing” Crackdown 2 Discussions with Microsoft [Videogaming247 via Gamestooge]