Realtime Worlds has gone into "administration" according to a report on Gamasutra. The confirmation of this comes on the heels over an earlier report this morning on sister publication Develop. The company that created Crackdown and All Points Bulletin will now be under the watchful eye of UK-based corporate recovery group Begbies Traynor.
Begbies Traynor will look deeply into the financial soul of the company and figure out if it can find a way to survive by selling assets or if it will have to close its doors altogether. Administration is equivalent to bankruptcy here in the United States in case you didn't figure that out already.
The Administration follows what should have been a profitable time for the Dundee, Scotland-based company founded by Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones; two months ago the company launched its first MMO the gritty urban action game All Points Bulletin, but the game didn't do as well as the company had expected, forcing it to (recently) cut some 60 employees from its staff. The company also recently unveiled a social virtual game world called Project: My World, but media reports indicate that it couldn't secure a deal to finance the game.
While the company's fate is uncertain it would be a shame to lose the developer that brought us the original Crackdown. We'll continue to follow this story as it develops.
Source: Gamasutra
Comments
Re: Realtime Worlds Enters into Administration
This stinks as I bought APB in hopes that they would eventually release enough patches to make it in to a servicable MMO universe. I like the idea of a MMO shooter, but the execution on that idea is at this time incomplete.
I guess there is little chance now of them making the game better for those of us who bought the game? More importantly... I just went out to Steam and I see: "Buy APB All Points Bulletin for $49.99." The big "what if" is that lets say you buy this today and Realtime Worlds goes belly up? Is "company want under" a viable reason to get your money back? I seem to remember Valve/Steam being hard to get a refund from? Is that still true?
Re: Realtime Worlds Enters into Administration
After releasing the god awful APB this was expected to happen to Real Time Worlds.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
Re: Realtime Worlds Enters into Administration
I'll be stupid enough to argue that this is somehow Microsoft's fault. I think that when Microsoft pulled Crackdown from Real Time Worlds, they lost a game that would have garnered them crucial sales during this time. Also, Crackdown 2 sucked and had none of the charm the original had.
http://www.deathvanquished.com