Tag Archives: dave jones

We were lucky enough to get nearly 20 minutes with Realtime Worlds boss and original GTA creator Dave Jones at Develop yesterday, the result of which you can see after the break.

We talked almost exclusively about APB, Jones telling us when the game will release, how much it’s cost to make and going into good detail on the mechanics of the MMO itself.

Jones also gave opinion on the state of the GTA franchise, calling Vice City the “pinnacle” of the IP.

There’s tons more stuff in there. Enjoy.

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Dave Jones revealed during Develop that Realtime World’s was ‘keen’ to work on Crackdown 2, but Microsoft wanted to see how the first one turned out before letting the firm loose.

Unfortunately, the development team was busy with APB by the time Microsoft decided to move forward with the franchise, thus Ruffian Games got the job.

At least fans can be placated knowing it’s being made, we reckon.

More through CVG.

Here you go. Get the last 20 minutes from Dave Jones’ keynote from Develop this morning, in which he talked exclusively about APB, after the break.

There’s tons of new game footage in there, a look at the title’s ridiculous music system, everything he showed on character customisation and the new three-minute trailer. The one that made our hair stand on end.

Must-watch. It’s out early next year.

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Realtime Worlds boss Dave Jones has just delivered a bunch of new information on MMO APB in his Develop keynote, confirming the game will have up to 100 players per server and will automatically match enforcers with the bad guys on a dynamic basis.

Jones showed extensive customisation options for both characters and cars in this morning’s speech, as well as a long new trailer detailing the game’s ideals.

Music tools were shown, including a creation system on the lines of CuBase. You can attach music jingles to your deaths – including a Mario theme Jone demoed.

No release date, though.

Get the full liveblog transcript here.

We’re coming to you live from Realtime Worlds boss Dave Jones’ keynote at Develop in Brighton. Hit the break for all the updates, pics included. The event kicks off at 9.30am BST.

Watch carefully for news on APB, and hopefully a first look at gameplay. If it happens, we’ll snap it.

We’re interviewing Dave later this morning, so we should have plenty more news on the upcoming MMO later.

Let’s do this thing, sucka.

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Realtime World boss and GTA creator Dave Jones has just told the GameHorizon conference that the studio’s next game is to be announced next year.

The developer described the new title as “very, very ambitious” and said it was in the works before both Crackdown and APB.

Jones is keynoting the conference, with is now happening in Newcastle, UK.

Update: GI reckons it’s another MMO.

Realtime Worlds’ Dave Jones has told GI he’s not exactly thrilled Crackdown 2 went to Ruffian Games.

“I think it was unfortunate that it had to be with a start-up in Dundee… it is challenging to get enough developers in one region as it is, so that was the only little big of negativity to the story,” he said.

“It’s just one of those awkward moments. In terms of the franchise, as always – as with anything we’ve created – we’re always keen to see it do great things. This is like a bump in the road… was there really no way it could have been done by one of the studios Microsoft shut down?

“I was a bit miffed at Microsoft that it happened that way, but you live and learn,” he added.

Ruffian’s staff roster includes many that worked on the original Crackdown.

Crackdown 2 was announced in Microsoft’s E3 press conference at the beginning of the month.

Realtime Worlds’ Dave Jones is a happy man. MMO APB, five years in the making, is finally coming to market, and he’s confident it’s going to be a winner.

“We’re very, very happy with it,” Jones told GI ahead of his GamesHorizon keynote.

“We’re looking at a launch date of early 2010 – we’ve got the partnership with EA Partners cemented, because we knew we’d need to start building presence at retail, marketing-wise. And we’ve signed a deal with a company on the hosting side – so everything’s going really well.”

Jones said the firm’s confident of a hit.

“We’re playing the game every day now, hosted internally – obviously it’s a company first, we’ve never done anything like this before, but overall I think everybody’s pretty confident that we’ll have a successful launch,” he said.

Realtime Worlds’ Dave Jones has called on the UK government to invest more heavily in the games industry in an effort to help it maintain its position in the global trade.

“Let’s make sure we invest in careers to” keep Britain at the “cutting edge” of the global industry, he told BBC News today.

The interview took place at Realtime’s Scottish offices. And yep, APB was on the screens.

Jones, the original creator of Grand Theft Auto, noted that “some of the biggest ever games in the world have come out of the UK.”

The BBC’s TV report described games as a “huge growth area”.

Britain’s creative industry’s in general will contribute £85 billion to the economy by 2013, said the piece, and employ some 1.3 million people.

In a statement issued exclusively to VG247, Realtime Worlds studio head Colin MacDonald has confirmed the developer is in “ongoing” discussions with Microsoft regarding Crackdown 2.

His comments came after it was rumoured today that Microsoft was funding Ruffian Games – a new, Dundee-based firm partially formed of ex-members of Realtime Worlds – specifically to develop a Crackdown sequel.

MacDonald added that while an offer to develop a second game hadn’t been made to Realtime Worlds, he “very much” doubts “that Microsoft would harm an otherwise fruitful existing development relationship by gambling on funding Crackdown 2 with a startup on RTW’s doorstep, for obvious reasons.”

Realtime Worlds boss and GTA creator Dave Jones told us that he’d be “gutted” not be involved with Crackdown 2′s development, “but if it had to be that way, I would want to see it done justice – by an established, renowned developer that had the track record of delivering the quality gaming experience Crackdown players would demand.”

MacDonald also confirmed that “five or six” staff had left to join Ruffian, as was rumoured this morning, but that the “vast majority of the Crackdown team remain at RTW” working on APB and an “unannounced project that will cause quite a stir when unveiled.”

The existence of Ruffian came to light this morning after this Flickr set emerged of members of the fledgling firm look at office space in Dundee.

Crackdown lead designer Billy Thomson is involved with Ruffian, as is Xen Group long-timer, Gaz Liddon. Xen provided physics, art and other resources for the original game.

The full statement, emailed from MacDonald, is published below.

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