Realtime Worlds made Crackdown, then spent $100M on APB — bankrupt six weeks after launch

Realtime Worlds was founded in 2000 by David Jones, the creator of Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings. The studio's first major project was Crackdown (2007), an open-world action game for Xbox 360 published by Microsoft. Crackdown was a critical and commercial success, winning BAFTA awards and selling over 1.5 million copies. The game established Realtime Worlds as a major studio and gave its founder the credibility to raise enormous sums for the next project.

That next project was APB: All Points Bulletin, a massively multiplayer online game that would let players choose between being criminals or law enforcement in a persistent open city. Development began around 2005 and stretched for five years, with costs ballooning to over $100 million. The company raised $30 million in 2006, $50 million in 2008, and a further $21 million in early 2010 — over $100 million in total investment for a single game.

APB launched on 29 June 2010 to poor reviews (Metacritic 58). Critics praised its customisation system but found the gameplay repetitive and the free-to-play / subscription hybrid model confusing. Player numbers peaked early and then dropped sharply. The game had been designed to generate 'hundreds of millions' in ongoing revenue, but it never came close.

On 17 August 2010 — just seven weeks after APB's launch — Realtime Worlds entered administration. Its Colorado office was closed immediately and most of the 200+ staff were laid off. APB's servers were shut down on 16 September 2010, less than three months after launch. The company was liquidated. The studio that had created one of the Xbox 360's most acclaimed exclusives was destroyed by a single failed project.