Comments on: No Money No Problems: APB Is Sub-Free

By: woodechoon

woodechoon — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:14:03 +0000

i just checked the faq and this guy is completely wrong this game is subscription based it is 9$ a month or u can pay by the hour.

By: Rylan

Rylan — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:08:40 +0000

Old post but subscription fees have now been confirmed. It’s about £8 a month

By: Rog

Rog — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:04:10 +0000

i feel the same way. i hate subscription fees, so i go looking for free MMOs, but ALL of them suck. they all have the same problems which make them incredibly boring. and none of them are unique.

By: cyrenic

cyrenic — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:22:23 +0000

An audio interview released today seems to confirm one aspect of their business model (scroll down a bit to find it, the interview is in English): http://guido.posterous.com/apb-interview-mit-ej-moreland-design-lead-von

At 7:10 in the interview, the interviewer asks the lead designer of APB if players will sell custom creations (clothing, decals, etc.) for in game or real money. The APB dev dodges the question saying he can’t talk about their business model yet. That says to me they’ll be letting players sell created content for real money and taking a percent of each sale.

Personally, I also expect some kind of in-game advertising (hey, it fits the setting, so as long as it’s not too obnoxious); and they’ll obviously charge for extra content they make post release (they’ve mentioned racing and a zombie mod as just two possibilities).

By: Mauro

Mauro — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:22:37 +0000

I cant contain my excitement seriously! (Go look at the comments on MMO Champion!) This is a game that ive been following and Im really impressed by your decision of make this a subscription free MMO. Just shows that the company really wants to focus on providing a quality game that will appeal to the players rather than making it all about money. Greeds blinds people or in this case devs. Its all about the game not the money! May you be the pioneers on the subscription free MMOs! (Yes I know about guild wars and played it but its almost dead now ;’( )

Where others have failed you will succeed!

Good luck with everything in the future!
Mauro

PS: Can I start queueing up for the game’s launch? :P

By: cjlr

cjlr — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:18:03 +0000

This just went from ‘maybe’ to ‘fuck yeah’.

@Dominic:
Yeah, a lot of people just get hooked on making numbers slowly go up … Personally, I think they’ll all insane, but I know I’m in the minority here.
Yeah, but listen: this one goes up to eleven. Eleven

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:26:01 +0000

Yeah, a lot of people just get hooked on making numbers slowly go up. Just look at the huge success of achievement/trophy systems on the 360/PS3. A lot of folks refused to buy older PS3 games until they patched in trophy support – such is the appeal of arbitrary numerical progression.

Personally, I think they’ll all insane, but I know I’m in the minority here. Maybe I’m the crazy one.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:05:39 +0000

I don’t think it’s an intentional design meant to “waste” people’s time. What is now known as “the grind” was supposed to be the fun part.

Somehow people collectively decided that games aren’t fun until you max out your level, that the endgame is the only “real” game and the rest of it is just training and/or a waste of time.

This makes me sad. I have zero interest in the endgame. It’s the journey, not the destination that matters.

By: Jetsetlemming

Jetsetlemming — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:24:00 +0000

My problem with subscriptions is that I always have to buy the game and expansions on top of them. I might be willing to give Blizzard $15 a month for at least a little while while I try out the game and see what the big deal is, but when I have to pay $80 to buy the game and expansions to earn the right to give them my money, that’s just a smack in the face.
Looking forward to APB.

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:51:59 +0000

(Curse you, lack of edit function)

And of course, the flipside would be a marauding supervillain of some description, with a large force of ordinary cops trying to bring him to justice.

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:51:20 +0000

One thing I do like the sound of is that the developers have mentioned expanding this game ‘sideways’ over time rather than in the traditional linear fashion. In most online games, expansions are new levels, new higher-level gear and weapons, stuff to work towards. In one interview with the devs, I saw them mention that they’d like to actually expand APB to support stuff like superhero-type characters (ala Crackdown) or zombie invasions and such.

I’d love to see that. A team of a dozen well-armed crooks on a bank-heist mission, coming out of the building only to find that they’ve sent goddamn *robocop* after them.

By: Kommissar Nicko

Kommissar Nicko — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:00:24 +0000

I’m going to be playing this, without a single flinch, second thought, or moment’s hesitation. I’ve squandered bags of money on MMOs in the past only to wish that I’d never traveled down that dark road, but in this, I see at least the chance to take another possible road without regret.