APB is "bastard child of everything we've been striving towards for 15-20 years": Realtime Worlds

Hugely anticipated crime MMO APB is the culmination of 20 years work on GTA, Crackdown and sandbox gaming in general, Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald has told VG247.

"I don't think so," said Macdonald when asked if the game was a straight evolution from Crackdown.

"It's been on the go for quite some time, long before people starting seeing Crackdown and we got a sense of Crackdown's success. It's the bastard child of everything we've been striving towards over the 15-20 years that Realtime Worlds, DMA and David Jone have been making games.

"It's where we want to go in terms of sandbox gameplay and everything that started with Grand Theft Auto and was evolving through Crackdown."

Macdonald added that APB brings plenty to the table that's never been seen before.

"Some things we've taken a lot and there are also a ton of areas in APB that are completely new and unique to APB itself. So, there's a mix of things that came from Crackdown, but as much as anything it's just what the company was set up to do, what Dave's always wanted to do from GTA and before Crackdown and APB."

An APB beta is on the way, with both the public test and the game's actual release happening sooner than many thought, Macdonald told us last week.

There is, however, no date on the title as yet.