Real Time Worlds buys back publishing rights for APB (and more)

[Romier S]

I thought this was an interesting read. Most will remember RTW from thier work on Crackdown. APB has been in the works for awhile now and was to be published by Webzen. That is no longer the case though as RTW has bought back the rights to the game and appear to be self-publishing.

 

This particular article though gives some insight into the cost of getting a game made today. It also reveals the budget for Crackdown was in the range of 50 million!

 

RTW regains global distribution rights for APB

 

Jones says he would struggle to make a game for less than 50 million

 

"It's easy for some people to underestimate what it really takes these days to produce a great game," he said. "So we're very resolute, we know what it takes, we know how much it costs, and we don't kid ourselves that it's going to take anything less.

 

"Just sticking to that principle, not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, both internally within the company and with investors, saying yes, it is a lot of money, but truly that's what it takes.

 

"Unfortunately these days it does take that amount. Crackdown wasn't that long ago and our development budget was something like USD 50 million, and even that to me now, I don't know if I could do anything for much less than that.

[JoeyN]

It also reveals the budget for Crackdown was in the range of 50 million!

 

It's a good thing crackdown was such a hit in the U.S. then where it sold almost 1 million copies, as the world total was 1.4 million

[dogbert]

The Crackdown post-mortem said it had some pretty major development hitches due to scheduling, technology & desired deadlines from its publisher. Interesting to see them take back APB, I think that says a lot about Webzen, and I'd be interested to see who they partner with to publish it at the end of the day - they won't self publish it as that requires infrastructure & overhead to actually get it in stores. EA for the win, is my guess, though Dave Jones has a history of pulling out strange partners that work

[dogbert]

Article Update. Budget for Crackdown was a more palatable $20 million.

[iainl]

That's good to hear. Does this mean we might actually see some sign of it soon, then?

 

Also, is it still only heading to the PC, where I can't play it?

[JoeyN]

It's PC/360

[iainl]

Great news; I can play it after all, then. Although at the rate this is going, I may have finally pulled the trigger on the Core2 E8200 that I plan to get in between a PS3 and the HDMI-capable amp to listen to it properly.