The developer and publisher Little Orbit has acquired the multiplayer shooter All-Points Bulletin: Reloaded (APB) and is now planning to revive the virtually dead game APB. Some fans are glad, others are skeptical, and yet others approach it with gallows humor.
After it was already reanimated once by Reloaded Games, it seemed like APB: Reloaded was now experiencing its final months before the ultimate shutdown.
The player count kept dwindling, the last update was released according to Steam in May 2016, and Reloaded Games did not respond to the community’s questions. But now a rescue seems to be on the horizon.
Doomed to die?
What is APB: Reloaded? The multiplayer shooter from Realtime Worlds is set in the fictional city of Sao Paro, where the two factions of police and criminals engage in fierce battles for control over the city. This forms the basic principle of APB: Reloaded.
Players must choose a side and are given various tasks throughout the game that relate to their faction. For example, a group of criminals might rob a store, and the opposing group of police must prevent them from doing so.
Players have access to a vast arsenal of weapons, vehicles, clothes, etc., with which they can customize their character down to the smallest detail.
However, the game was a disaster for the original developer Realtime Worlds, receiving rather low ratings of about 6/10 to 7/10 points.
The sales figures were too low, leading to APB being bought by Reloaded Games and turned into a free-to-play model.
From Kung Fu Panda to multiplayer shooters
Who is Little Orbit? For having been active in the gaming industry for over 10 years, the publisher named “Little Orbit” is not particularly well-known.
The company has primarily focused on licensed games such as Kung Fu Panda or Adventure Time games in the past, but according to CEO Matthew Scott, that is now over.
As the owner of the IP of APB: Reloaded, Little Orbit is now its own master and does not have to adhere to the guidelines and deadlines of the license holders. This would lift a great burden off the development team, Scott said.
With the acquisition of titles like APB: Reloaded, as well as the Kickstarter Tactic RPG Unsung Story, Little Orbit now wants to become the publisher they always wanted to be.
A big undertaking for a small publisher
What are the problems of APB?
A significant portion of the problems was directly caused by the previous developer Reloaded Games after APB went free-to-play.
These include primarily:
- Terrible customer support
- Doubtful methods of banning that allow players to “buy back” their banned accounts
- Ineffective anti-cheating software
- Pay-to-win gameplay system
On top of that, the game suffered from poor optimization issues with memory leaks and FPS drops.
According to the statement from the CEO of Little Orbit, it partly runs on two different engines: the Unreal Engine 3 and 3.5. The list goes on, but steps are now being taken to address these issues gradually.
What measures are planned? Little Orbit has big plans for APB: Reloaded and the GamersFirst platform.
In an open letter to the APB community on GamersFirst.com, CEO Matthew Scott outlined some of the already planned updates and improvements the team plans to start implementing soon.
Primarily, Little Orbit wants to establish stable contact with the player base. The first steps will be as follows:
- Cleaning and restructuring the social media channels of APB
- Implementation of new official forums
- Updating the user agreement and privacy policies
- New behavior rules for the forums
- Updating the general banning and cheating policies
Scott even joined the unofficial Discord server of the APB community and answered some players’ questions there.
Within the next 30 days, a rough roadmap for the updates is to be established, giving the community a general idea of which changes are coming when.
The main goal is to keep the players consistently updated with live updates. This includes, among other things:
- Balance changes for Enforcers and Criminals, the two factions in the game
- Standardization of the PC version on Unreal Engine 3.5 and subsequent transition to Unreal Engine 4
- Improvement of the matchmaking system
- Additional game modes
- Maps
- Outfits
- Weapons
- And vehicles
Over time, additional games from GamersFirst will be added to APB: Reloaded, but Little Orbit is in no hurry in that regard. The gaming platform is to grow slowly and organically.
A mix of hope, skepticism, and cynicism
What does the community say? Although APB: Reloaded has shrunk over the unfortunate years, it still has a loyal community that continues to support the game.
The players reacted mixed to the purchase of the game and the open letter from the CEO.
After the strong negative experiences with the previous developer Reloaded Games, who turned APB: Reloaded into a “cash cow,” many reacted cynically or at least skeptically.
Thus, the user DecadentMadness wrote on Reddit “LOL HEY GUYS THE NEW ENGINE IS COMING!”, as a jab at the eternal promises from Reloaded Games to transition the game to Unreal Engine 4.
There were also several jokes about a Battle Royale mode, as a quick cash grab option that would disappear after a few months and ruin APB for good.
However, another part of the players is somewhat more hopeful.
Since the release of the open letter, various threads with improvement suggestions have already emerged on Reddit, and fans have also addressed questions and suggestions to the CEO of Little Orbit in the unofficial Discord.
This part of the community takes Scott at his word that communication will improve from now on and that their feedback will be heard.
The hopes are that the new developer can indeed save APB: Reloaded from complete ruin.
Will the updates be sufficient? The big question arising from such a large undertaking is whether Little Orbit has not bitten off more than it can chew. Many voices in the community therefore say that the publisher must be crazy to buy a dying game like APB: Reloaded.
Especially in the shooter market, the competition from established titles like Fortnite, GTA 5, and Overwatch is extremely strong.
Little Orbit will therefore have to find something that sets APB: Reloaded apart from the gray mass in the long term and makes it interesting for new players.
Against these best MMOs, APB: Reloaded will have to hold its ground:
