Despite Rumors, Realtime Worlds Says All Points Bulletin Doing Well

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MMOG developers never release user numbers, unless it’s good for them. And Realtime Worlds feels confident about their MMOG to do just that. They’re reporting that All-Points Bulletin has a 130,000 users, which is actually pretty impressive for a brand-new MMOG. That puts it better than Star Trek Online and Tabula Rasa, according to Joystiq. But, is it enough to save Realtime Worlds?

Scottish developer Realtime Worlds is probably best-known for their sleeper hit Crackdown, on the Xbox 360. Allegedly, after Microsoft was too slow in ordering the sequel Crackdown 2 (ironically, recently released by another developer), Realtime Worlds changed their focus to the MMOG project that would become APB.

Somewhat unfortunately, APB has been mediocrely received by the gaming press, without our experience with the beta not leaving us exactly impressed with the game. Remember that APB has a unique business model where instead of paying a $15 monthly fee, gamers pay for game time and other points – a microtransaction model.

And if you’re having doubts about how well that model is working for APB, Realtime Worlds says that the average amount spent per month, per player is $28. Which isn’t bad. RW boasts that it’s the highest revenue per player of any game out there.

APB is currently “in administration”, which is similar to bankruptcy, though Accounting majors will surely argue with me on that. The company says right now that they’re restructuring and looking for a British publisher for APB, although rumors say that the company is also looking for a buyer to acquire them wholesale.