APB To Use In-Game Audio Advertisements

Rock, Paper, Shotgun reports that upcoming action MMOG APB: All Points Bulletin will use in-game audio advertisements as part of its business model. The number of ads you hear will be limited: "you'll only hear an ad when you go into a new zone, and that's only once every three hours." Nevertheless, some gamers are upset that these ads will be included on top of APB's already unusual payment plans. The game is set for release next Tuesday. Producer Jesse Knapp says of Realtime Worlds' goals for APB, "We looked at other online action games, and we saw things we felt could be better. Only 12 to 32 players in a match, bad connection due to peer-to-peer, dead cities, way too much time in lobbies, things like that. So what we set out to do was to make a game that has that online player vs. player action game experience in a large city with other players around, no lobbies, dynamic matchmaking, dedicated servers, great experience, and that's been one of the driving factors of APB from the very beginning." CVG recently previewed the game.

Comments

Pardon?

[Vitani]

"APB's already unusual payment plans"

Don't you mean "APB's *awesome* payment plans"? Being able to "pay as you go" means this might be the first MMO I ever play as I've always opposed paying a monthly fee for a game I may or may not play depending on my free time in any given month.

Re:Pardon?

[FileNotFound]

You guys are all missing the elephant in the room.

Here is the BIG difference between APB gametime purchasing system and say WOW.

APB has a currency called RTW points.
You can buy RTW points for $.
You can buy gametime with RTW points.
You can buy and SELL items in game for RTW points.

Do you understand what this means?

You can play the game without EVER spending another dollar after purchasing the box.

If anyone of you ever played EVE online, this is a familiar concept.

In EVE you could buy time codes for $$ and sell them for EVE in game currency. I had 4 accounts in EVE and did not pay for any of them with actual money.

Being able to buy gametime by playing a game is a fantastic concept.

Already used to ads

[jlebrech]

I've already heard ads in GTA4 but they were for fictional products.

Why not just have a radio that tunes into the current area that you can switch off after a minute of play, or just continue listening to all the ads.

APB= Ads Permanently Blasting

[SmallFurryCreature]

You think they are going to bombard us with so much ads we will go insane and civilization collapses.

I think you are an optimist.