Summary
The console versions ofAPB Reloadedwill be officially shut down on Friday, August 2. Players have until that date to transfer their characters to thePCversion of the MMO.
Originally developed by British studio Realtime Worlds, theGrand Theft Auto-like gamewas first released as a subscription-based PC MMO in June 2010, titledAPB: All Points Bulletin. But its servers were shut down within months, with Realtime Worlds itself entering administration come August of that year. American company K2 Network purchased the game and had its subsidiary Reloaded Productions relaunch it as a free-to-play MMO calledAPB Reloadedin late 2011. Its Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ports were released in June 2016 and March 2017, respectively. California-based publisher Little Orbit then acquired Reloaded Productions' parent company in 2018.
APB Reloaded Dev Reminds Players to Transfer Their Characters to PC While They Still Can
Come January 2024, Little Orbitannounced that the console versions ofAPB Reloadedwill be shutting downthis summer. The publisher has now once again taken to social media to remind fans that they have until August 2 to transfer their characters to the PC version of the game. The process of doing so is as simple as logging into the GamersFirst website with an Xbox or PlayStation account, then linking one’sAPB Reloadedconsole profile to a pre-existing PC account. Doing so will trigger an email verification step, followed by the final confirmation of this one-time and irreversible action.
PS4 gamersare still able to playAPB Reloadedon Sony’s eighth-generation console until August 2. Meanwhile, the Xbox One version of the game has been unplayable since January 2024, when its servers went down due to severe technical issues that the developer gave up on trying to address. The company subsequently disabled all microtransactions in the PS4 version ofAPB Reloadedon February 1.
In aMay 2024 AMA, Little Orbit and German-Austrian developer Plaion (formerly Koch Media) said that the decision to shut down the console versions ofAPB Reloadedwasn’t merely a result of technical issues, but also some unique publishing challenges stemming from the game’s multiple ownership changes. Specifically, neither Sony nor Microsoft allow already released titles on its storefronts to switch publishers, which has been complicating the development of the game’s console ports.
By shutting down the PS4 and Xbox One versions ofAPB Reloaded, Little Orbit is leaving open the possibility of relaunching the game on consoles. But with no such move being announced as of yet, the only way to continue enjoying thisfree-to-play MMOin the foreseeable future is to download its Steam version.
