APB Trailer Sets the Scene
APB publisher EA has released the crime MMO's opening cinematic, explaining how the city of San Paro came to play host to open warfare between punky cops and punks. Operating somewhat differe
Operating somewhat differently to regular MMOs, APB comes with fifty hours of play time out of the box which is drained by being in action districts. An extra twenty hours will run you $6.99, or players can simply pony up $9.99 for thirty days of unlimited play.
Developed by Crackdown creator Realtime Worlds, APB is headed to PC on June 29.
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S!R DOOM
reply$7 for 20 hours or $10 for 1 month... those sure do sound like subscriptions... What ever happened the to claim of "no required subscriptions?"
That seems like a pretty big flip on RTW part. Some might even call it a lie.-
Err, I'm pretty sure most people think of subscriptions as being based on "per month" or "per year," like WoW, Xbox Live, and Magazines. The $7 for 20 hours one is like, you ran out of stuff to read so you went to the store and bought a book or something.
You're not required to go to the store and buy something when you run out, and what you buy doesn't expire after some point in time. You have it there to use until you finish it. Unless they actually meant "free to play," I see little problem.-
Well they specifically said there would be recurring costs, so that I understood. But when you pay for play time directly (whether its for 1 month, or 20 hours accessible anytime) then you are still paying for a subscription.
The vast majority of this game requires a subscription for access (since you have to unlock customization options, clothing, cars, etc. through missions). Since any part of the game requires a subscriptions, and the part which does require a sub makes up almost everything in the game, there are literally required subscriptions.
I am just bugged because they implied that they would find a new business model for their recurring costs and they had us believe up until this announcement that they were still doing that.-
They DID do that. Like I said, subscriptions RUN OUT after a specific amount of time that you have little to no control over. Their alternate pay plan, while eventually running out due to player use, doesn't "expire" like a subscription to a magazine or just about any other MMO does. You get 20 hours to be used at any time you want until the 20 hours all gone.
I think of it kinda like candy. You can buy a month's subscription to a company. During that month, you can have as much candy as you want but you have to eat it right then. Or you can buy a package of candy and get 20 pieces to eat anytime you want. If you really like eating candy, the subscription is better. If you only eat it every once in a while, the discrete package is better.
Do you see the distinction I'm making?
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Well I thin kthe "no required subscriptions" part comes from the fact that you can hang out in the social district of the game all you want without paying a cent. You only have to pay after you have hit the 50 hours limit when you want to enter the other districts. At least that's how I understood it.
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You are correct, but about 95% of the content is in the action district. Obviously that's where you actually play, but also, they have said that almost all of the customization content is unlocked through doing missions.
If almost all of the game required you buying game time, then most of the game has a required subscription. You could claim that the 5% which doesn't require subscription fulfills the no required game time thing, but that's a slim technicality to base a claim on.
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