Interviews// APB Reloaded's John-Enee Merriex

John-Enee Merriex

One year ago an MMO unlike any other was launched. Called APB, it took the sandbox world of the Grand Theft Auto games and turned it into a multiplayer arena, with players taking the sides of criminal gangs and law enforcers. Created by Dundee based Realtime Worlds, it promised much in the way of recreating the thrill of playing a GTA-like game in an online environment. Sadly, it was not to be.

Upon the game’s release it was beset with myriad problems ranging from game killing bugs to an overly complex subscription system that had players paying for time in certain zones of the game. Two months after its release the servers were shut down and Realtime Worlds ceased to be. It was a major blow to the MMO genre and many bemoaned its rapid collapse.

Yet here we are talking about a game that had faded into history. APB Reloaded is a phoenix-like resurrection of the game that held so much promise, thanks to developer Gamesfirst. Gone are the complex subscription models to be replaced by a free-to-play system that is supported by micro-transactions. Such a system has benefited the likes of Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online and more recently Age of Conan.

We caught up with John-Enee Merriex of Gamesfirst about this relaunch of APB and what people can expect to see when the game reappears in this new form.

SPOnG: Can you give us a brief overview of what key changes you have made from the original APB?

John-Enee Merriex: A lot of what we have been focussing on is tweaking gameplay to make the game more fun. We’ve done a lot of work on shooting, driving and character progression, which has been tested in closed beta. Now we’re entering into open beta where we’re looking at skill rating, match making and missions.


SPOnG: The beta is open worldwide yes?

John-Enee Merriex: Just North America and Europe at the moment. (The beta can be accessed from here) South America is later in the year along with Australasia


SPOnG: Can you expand on the financial model you have adopted for APB Reloaded?

John-Enee Merriex: Gamersfirst is a free-to-play company, so that’s the model we’ve taken on for APB Reloaded. The game client can be downloaded for free and you can play it right now for no charge. Players can buy additional items from within the game, one of the most popular is the ‘premium pack’ that costs $9.99 that gives a 30% bonus on in-game cash, 20% off items in the game’s market place and a 50% increase in chance to win items at the end of a mission.


SPOnG: How have you approached the issue of balancing the game with players who invest money into the game versus those who don’t?

John-Enee Merriex: I used to be a producer on another Gamersfirst game called War-Rock. We released this weapon for it that pretty much negated everything else. It sold like hotcakes to the point where over 30% of the player-base had this weapon. This was an untenable situation, so we limited its stock virtually, reducing its impact on the balance of the game by making it very rare. It is things like this that we’ve learned from other games in our roster that we have applied to APB Reloaded.

Other examples include items that can be unlocked by simply playing the game versus buying them outright. This will apply to vehicles, weapons and clothing items. We will also offer enhancements to items such as silencers to guns, reducing the risk of the player being detected. The counter to that is it reduces the power of the gun when compared to its free counterpart.