Realtime Worlds

About Realtime Worlds

Realtime Worlds was a British video game developer founded in 2002 by David Jones, a key figure behind the popular franchises *Lemmings* and *Grand Theft Auto*. Jones, leveraging his experience from founding DMA Design (which became Rockstar North), established the studio in Dundee, Scotland, alongside industry veterans Ian Hetherington, founder of Psygnosis, and Tony Harman from Nintendo of America. The company was formed after Jones acquired the Scottish studio from the financially troubled Rage Software, where he had been leading operations.

The company's business focused on developing open-world video games for the console and PC markets. Its revenue model was based on traditional game sales and, later, a subscription-based model for its online game. Realtime Worlds secured significant venture capital, raising over $100 million from investors including New Enterprise Associates and Maverick Capital. The studio's first major release was *Crackdown* (2007) for the Xbox 360. This open-world, third-person action-adventure game was a critical and commercial success, selling approximately 1.5 million copies and winning several awards, including a BAFTA.

Following this success, Realtime Worlds embarked on its most ambitious project, *APB: All Points Bulletin*, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that had been in development for five years. Set in the fictional city of San Paro, *APB* allowed players to join factions of either criminals or enforcers, engaging in missions and open-world combat against each other. The game featured deep character and vehicle customization. Its business model was a hybrid, offering 50 hours of gameplay with the initial purchase and requiring players to either buy more time or subscribe for unlimited access. Simultaneously, the company was developing *Project: MyWorld*, a social platform described as a virtual recreation of the real world using Google Earth data, intended as a platform for social games.

Despite high expectations and substantial funding, *APB: All Points Bulletin* launched in June 2010 to mixed reviews and poor sales. The prolonged development cycle, high costs, and a failure to align with evolving market trends, such as the rise of free-to-play models, were cited as major contributing factors to its downfall. Just six weeks after *APB's* release, in August 2010, Realtime Worlds entered administration, a form of bankruptcy. The company ceased operations in September 2010, and its assets, including the intellectual properties for *APB* and *Project: MyWorld*, were sold off.