Realtime Worlds Takes Their Ball and Goes Home: Plans to Self-Publish APB
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Realtime Worlds, the company behind the Xbox 360 title Crackdown, and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto-esque MMO APB, have announced that they have reacquired the publishing rights to the title, and are now going to distribute it themselves.
From a recent press release:
APBis 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.
“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 APBwe 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.”
Despite this optimistic appraisal, I have yet to see a case of an MMO being sold to a publisher, then subsequently bought back again by the developer turning out well in the end.
Vanguard was in a similar situation with Microsoft, and they stated categorically that buying back the publishing rights would get them more time, more money, and more developmental freedom. We all know how that turned out.
Comments
That’s the wrong assessment in this case. Realtime signed a publishing deal with Webzen when they were an unknown developer, and had relatively little to show.
APB (and whatever else they are working on) was strong enough to attract $50m of top-tier investment capital. You do not get that kind of money for a ropey prototype. Mainstream companies are investing in Realtime, they have big money backing and they no longer need a second-rate publisher in Webzen, they now have the money to self-publish.
The goal for any ambitious developer is to get out of the one-failed-game-and-bust trap, and that either requires getting yourself bought out, getting big enough that you work on several projects at once, or getting yourself into publishing or tech (Valve, Epic, or Id).
Realtime in my book are gunning for the kind of success that gains them independence in the long term - cut-the-gordian-knot kind of strategy. Comparisons with Vanguard are well wide of the mark.
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Reply to NJTime will tell, NJ. I wasn’t wishing Realtime any ill will, just speaking from personal experience.
I’m a writer, and the closest equivelant I could think of to these types of scenarios were if I had signed a two book contract with a major publishing house, and then decided, “You know, I changed my mind… I think I’m going to go with lulu.com and self publish, instead.”
It’s usually a bad omen that something else is happening behind the scenes.
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